Project GUARDIAN: The Rise & Fall
by Her Head In the Clouds
Summary: When Princess Thia is kidnapped by British terrorist, Pitch Black, a mysterious secret agent comes the rescue. But protecting her is a challenge as he is wanted dead by multiple spy agencies. Now she and the ex-spy who only goes by the codename 'JACK FROST' must work together and stop Pitch, all while uncovering the dark secrets of something he left called the GUARDIAN program. AU
1. The Sleek and Smooth Killer

**********A dark twist on Rise of the Guardians, this came to me while I was home with an allergic reaction, drinking hot chocolate and watching the Jungle Book.**

**Genre:** Thriller/Suspense/Adventure/Romance/Angst**  
Disclaimer: **I do not own Rise of the Guardians or any of the media shared in this story. They belong to William Joyce, Dreamworks, Blue Stahli and other various artists. And any popular spy-related tropes which are recognized are all disclaimed to the cinematic efforts of film/television that we have become enchanted or influenced by. The events, places, and people are purely fictional.  
_A big thanks to my wonderful__** beta**__ NightShade25 who endured my ranting for four weeks and helped me with the plot. You're the best!_  
**Dedication:** _For Crisbel, who wants to be a weirdo princess who solves murders, and to lovers of snowcones__._

**Enjoy!**

* * *

_Belarus, 1:47 am_

Jack rolled up the sleeves of his black turtleneck.

His pale skin was in stark contrast against the darkness of the rooftop around him. It prickled in the cold air whipping around him. The dark sky eased his tense muscles as he stood in the shadow of a roof shed. He then rubbed his eye, drowning out the sounds of police sirens speeding off several kilometers away.

That's when a man's voice started to shout angrily from below.

Unafraid of the height, Jack boldly strode to the edge of the rooftop. He peered down into the dark alley below. It was empty and cluttered with workman's tools. In the streetlamps nearby, a long shadow cast over one of the walls. It was running away from something Jack couldn't see, but then a second shadow took off after the first in a dead chase.

So Jack wasted no time.

He used the rooftops to pursue both men. Jack melted into the cover of the shadows and using his lithe body to maneuver around obstacles quickly. Confident and controlled, he skillfully leaped across each rooftop at a speed that few parkour runners had.

When he landed on the other side, he made an expert barrel roll, shifting his centre of gravity to his shoulder and pulled up into a stand. Jack prepared to run to the next ledge but froze near the edge. The hairs on the back of his neck rose up like needles.

He heard a fight start.

He instantly dropped into a crouch, applying more pressure to his heel and nimbly lifted his legs to cover more ground and reduce the sound of his steps.

When he neared the shadowy ledge, Jack craned his neck over to look down.

Through the fringe of his brown bangs, he saw his target.

He had been following the man undetected for weeks and tonight was the night the latter was scheduled for an important rendezvous. Whoever the important person was, Jack never discovered but he wasn't concerned with the other agent's mission. He only wanted to talk to the agent_._ But now it looked like both plans would suddenly change. The mysterious figure chasing the agent below was not the man Jack knew his target was supposed to meet.

This was an ambush by another spy.

He glared as they started spitting words at each other on the nightly wind. It blew around Jack, whistling in his ears and he flexed the fingers of his right hand anxiously as they spoke in Russian. But by the time, Jack could fully register what was going on down below, the unknown man suddenly flashed a concealed knife and slashed it right across the other's neck.

The next words that left his mouth traveled clearly up into Jack's acute hearing.

"_You will see. The world will turn pitch black,"_ the mysterious spy spit at the agent. Jack's brown eyes narrowed dangerously as his subconscious kicked in.

He sprung up immediately and glared down at the alleyway.

The agent he was following was clutching his gloved hands at his throat to stop the blood flow. He tried backing away but the unknown assailant took two steps forward and pushed him to the ground. He then advanced on the fallen man.

Jack clenched his teeth and eyed the area and saw the second fire escape just underneath him.

It was long enough to make the jump to the ground so he leaped over the ledge and grabbed onto its ladder. His left leather glove gripped the steel securely. Quickly after, he used his upper body strength to twist around the ladder and let go into the empty expanse of the alley. Before Jack's boots hit the ground, he flexed the fingers of his gloveless right hand. His blood pounded widely in his ears, filling him with energy.

The mysterious spy didn't hear him land as Jack's feet touch the concrete. By the time he saw the flash of black coming toward him, Jack had already grabbed a long pipe from the ground and hit him squarely in the jaw.

The unknown guy backed up from the force and pain of the blow but he wasn't stunned for long. Before Jack could pull up to get a look at his face, the man had already pulled down his black hood to reveal a creepy gas mask concealing his identity. He was grunting loudly under it but recovered quickly.

Jack narrowed his cold, brown eyes to slits.

"_Who are you?!"_ Jack demanded in Russian.

He twirled the pipe in his gloved hand, adrenaline now fueling his reflexes. His ungloved one was still twitching in the chilly air. The unknown attacker hunched with a silent breath, eyeing Jack's skinny, solid form and toned biceps. The young man before him looked nothing above average but he learned a long time ago not to be deceived by appearances.

So he then fiddled his hand inside his black jacket.

"_You are one to talk!"_ the mysterious man spat. _"Ever learn that it's not good to sneak up on others?"_

"_Dа,"_ Jack bit out. He gritted his teeth. _"But that's what I'm hired to do."_

"_Hired?"_ the man sputtered. _"By who?!"_

"_You tell me!"_ Jack snarled and not wasting a second, he rushed forward.

He swung the pipe at the man's torso but he deflected it easily. Jack sensed the man bring a fist up to hit him in the shoulder and his instincts kicked in. He knocked the wrist away and took a step around the killer, hooking his leg around his ankle and pushing him forward. When the man began to fall, he turned back deftly and grabbed the guy's wrist in his ungloved hand. Jack took a step back and tried to twist the arm but the man was quick and rushed forward to coil his arm back to him. Using the momentum of his steps, the unknown man lifted his knee expertly and rammed it into Jack's abdomen.

Jack doubled over as the wind knocked out of him. His vision went fuzzy, his teeth biting his tongue. He dropped the pipe.

The man then, seeing the advantage, pulled back and threw a punch to Jack's stomach. He grit his teeth while the wave of pain shot through.

As he coughed out, Jack vaguely thought of how out of practice he'd been for all these weeks. Following a target days on end without any time to train really messed up his dexterity. But that didn't mean he was a goner. Taking the one-second window of the oncoming punch, Jack bent his knees a little to ground himself and threw his chest back. He watched the fist fly narrowly above his head but didn't wait for rest to come. Trusting his hands, he threw the gloved one out behind him to the ground and executed a low roundhouse kick to the side of the man's leg and then followed with a middle roundhouse to his abdomen. When he buckled back, Jack sprang back up and delivered a set of punches.

He had the guy backing up, he almost had him, but then the guy revealed a tiny flare he had hiding in his cuff and pulled it.

The bright flash it ignited blinded Jack briefly. He backed away instinctively, squeezing his eyelids closed. But when the dark spots cleared from his eyes and he opened, it was enough time for the mysterious attacker to already send a powerful punch to his jaw. The man followed with a quick, front kick to the center of his chest.

Jack was sent rolling back on the ground. The concrete grazed at his bare arms painfully and his leg bent painfully under him. The pipe clanked loudly far away. Jack immediately tried getting back up.

"_Nyet, wait!" _Jack cried in Russian trying to stop the world from spinning around him and blinking out the stars in his brown eyes.

He pulled himself up slowly from the ground, feeling a searing pain coming from a gash on one of his elbows. He grit his teeth painfully and glared at the mysterious man. But the spy had already taken his chance and sped away down the alley.

There was no trace of him by the time Jack was able to stand again.

Jack sighed angrily. But he didn't have time to brood over it when he remembered the other agent, the one he'd been following, still lying on the ground. Jack wiped the blood from his split lip and quickly trudged over to the bleeding man. As he knelt down beside him, Jack felt the hard throbbing in his head from the fall begin. He gazed down at the agent through dizzying vision.

The man had no creepy gas mask like the other. He looked like he was in his thirties and under his dark coat, Jack saw he wore a dark red uniform. He was patting his coat pocket desperately, trying to take in a guttural breath through his sliced throat.

_(Russian)_

"_H-H-He took't!"_ he sputtered. The man's strange, golden eyes peered up at Jack fearfully. _"He-took-i-it!"_

Jack eyed him warily before he leaned down closer unaffected by the blood now soaking through his pants. He narrowed his brown eyes.

"_What?"_ he asked starkly. _"What did he take?"_

But the dying man continued to pat his coat frantically, gasping for more air.

_"Th-pri! Ne-eed to w'n th-pri-!" _he wheezed painfully.

Jack grabbed the man's wrists firmly to stop his shaking. It made the man refocus on his hard face.

"_Look at me,"_ Jack bit out tensely and the man nodded before his golden eyes suddenly widened with a new thought. He took a wheezing breath and tried to speak.

"_You..._" the agent managed to expel. His voice grew more gurgled. "_I-I kn-...I kno-y-!_"

That's when Jack's eyes widened, suddenly remembering why he was in this situation in the first place. So he wasn't wrong. All these weeks of wondering and stalking this man...he was right! He knew he had seen him somewhere. Somewhere before—

The agent coughed violently, blood sputtering on his uniform.

"_P__ozhaluysta!" _Jack cried and gripped his wrists tighter. He nodded frantically. "_I need to know. Have we...have we met before?"_

They were running out of time.

"_Tell me! Who did we work for?!" _ Jack demanded impatiently. _"How do I find Pitch Black!?" _

But the agent heard the name and shook his head weakly.

"_Nye't,"_ he began to choke. _"Not Pi-...th'com...guar..."_

"_What company__!__"_ Jack shouted. _"Argh, for who?!"_

He'd heard that word too many times in his memories and still had no clue as to what it meant. His hands were shaking. If this guy could just—

"_I –H...Wh-!"_ the agent managed to breathe out but Jack didn't understand.

"_No! Come on, you need to-!"_ Jack tried to start but suddenly something flashed in his mind.

"_**...where will they go?...one cares, so long as the GUARDIAN...but the program, doctor!...I know... Transport him out now!"**_

Jack pulled back and rubbed his right fist into his eyes again.

_"No, not now!"_ he growled as the images momentarily took over his senses.

Blinking rapidly, he tried to push the memory to the back of his mind. When his vision cleared, he noticed that the man's eyes were beginning to grow dull. Jack panicked and grabbed his shoulders.

"_Nyet!"_ he cried and shook him desperately, unaware that he began speaking English again.

"Who are we!? No! NO!"

But the man had already gazed up at the night sky above them.

Then, he went still as his last breath left him. Jack sat there frozen as the reality of the situation crashed around him. His fingers were shaking and his mouth grew dry. Staring into the agent's dull gold eyes, he said nothing as the silence of death enveloped him. He took a moment to compose himself.

After sighing with a bitter frown, he immediately went for the man's pockets. He didn't have a lot of time before someone began walking down this alley and saw him.

Jack felt all the pockets and found a small I.D. pouch. He opened it with a shaky breath hoping it would tell him what he needed to know. But there was nothing in it but a white card with one word on it.

_ELF. _

No company, address, number. No name. He couldn't track it.

Jack glared angrily and went on looking. He found nothing more but a piece of paper inside a small pouch. But whatever that had been there with it had been taken by Pitch's spy.

When he pulled out the paper and unfolded it, it had the name of someone he knew very well.

"_PI__**T**__CH BLACK. C__**O**__LLECT. __**O**__PERA__**T**__ION NIG__**H**__TMARE_."

Jack turned and stared down the dark and lonely alley with a cold glare.

It always seemed like Pitch was two steps ahead of him.

He then gritted his teeth and exhaled sharply, smelling the blood on his pants.

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "Mystique" – Blue Stahli  
**I carefully picked one song at the end of each chapter for its music or lyrics to feel the vibe/pace of the story so I'll hope you'll take a quick listen!**


	2. The Beautiful Rainbow Princess

_Four weeks later_

_Thailand, 5:37 pm_

"Look whose back, girls!"

A group of girls turned their heads. Their faces exploded with excitement.

"TOOOOOTH!"

The other people in the airport jumped at the abrupt screaming. One guy even dropped his suitcase and all his clothes fell out of his luggage.

Who knew eight (seemingly quiet) girls could make such noise! People watched in amusement as the little crowd stampeded over to the young woman coming through the glass doors. They also had several men dressed in business suits tagging behind them. Whoever the girl was, they figured she was probably rich.

They would have no idea just how rich she was.

Thia Hypunjam lifted her sunglasses and gave her family a blinding white grin. She was wearing a blue-green tank top with the words _Fay University_ written on it, white shorts, and purple sneakers. When her posse came close, she pulled out her pink earbuds and dropped her bags, arms open wide to greet them.

"Hollah!"

"Ew, don't say that!" Tuhina, one of the girls stuck out her tongue and Tooth was suddenly tackled by Tiati, the youngest girl, in a giant bear hug.

"Tooth! Tooth! Tooth! Finally, you're back! Tiana SUCKS at braiding my hair!" the eight year-old cried.

"I DO NOT!"

"Omg Tooth! Tina was spying on that guard again she likes so much!" Tulia butted in. "I saw her! When I was reading in the l–"

"TULIA! YOU WERE SPYING ON ME?!"

"Guys, sheesh! She just landed and you're already talking gossip?" Tia, the mature and second eldest of the eight said.

"What's the problem, Tia?!" Tulia said. "Why do you always suck the fun out of ever–" Tooth interrupted them with her hands on her hips.

"Uh bup bup! " She scolded and they stopped. "Wait, what do we do first?"

The girls jumped when they remembered and after Tooth put Tiati down she bent slightly facing all the girls in a circle ready to do 'their thing'. She laughed.

"Wings up, ladies!"

And immediately all nine of the girls, made wings with their hands and lifted their arms like were flying up. When they joined them together above their heads, Tina cheered and they all broke apart happily. Tooth was then enveloped in a huge group hug and she squeezed her pink eyes blissfully shut.

God, she missed her handmaidens when she was away!

When they pulled away, Tatiana, the oldest of her eight handmaidens came up to her again and gave her another big hug.

"Wow, Tooth! Massachusetts must be killing you!" She laughed. "Look how you dressed! Isn't it snowing there right now?"

"Exactly!" Tooth smiled widely. "Which is why I couldn't _wait_ for my winter exams to end! Being away for eight months from you guys is torture."

And the girls laughed, just as an older gentleman came up to them in his black suit. He smiled.

"Well then I suppose all the pampering that awaits you will be worth the wait, huh princess?"

Tooth made a big smile and let him envelope her in a warm hug.

"It is good to see you again, Mr. Bangkot," she said into the shirt of her country's Prime Minister. Ty Bangkot pulled away and straightened out his suit. Tooth rolled her eyes.

"Likewise, your highness."

"You've known me since birth. What happened to _Toothie?_"

"We're in public."

Tooth scoffed but Tia grabbed her arm and yanked her down to her eye-level.

"Which is _why_ we've got to get you out of those clothes, and into your dress for the party!"

Tooth blinked and tilted her head. She gave them a cheeky smile.

"You guys were already prepared?" And before she could blink, all the eight girls suddenly pulled out their colorful shopping bags, makeup kits, and boxes. Tooth's eyes bugged out.

"I-Is that all for me?!"

"Yup!" Tuhina cheered with a grin.

Tooth laughed and stood back up, crossing her arms.

"Are you guys saying I need a lot of work done?"

"Yes–" But Tooth shoved Tatiana away before she could finish. The other seven laughed.

"So come on, Tooth! Come on!" Theena jumped on her flats. "We haven't done a princess makeover since you last came home!" And Tooth gave a wide smile.

"Haha all right, all right, girls!"

She couldn't believe their eagerness. Just twelve hours ago she was in her baggy t-shirt with a messy bun, cramming for her last exam and now, ten thousand miles away from the cold and bitter States, she was going to get primped out like crazy.

But who was she to hate? She was only a princess four months of the year! Attending private school since you were ten years old on another continent for eight months of your life didn't give you the royal treatment everyone expected you to have.

Seeing all her handmaidens just as pumped made her excited for her cordial event after all.

Suddenly, one of her castle bodyguards popped up beside her in his dark suit and leaned out in front of her.

"Your highness, the private limo will arrive for you and the Prime Minister in one hour. Is that enough time for you to prepare in the washroom?"

Tatiana bumped in, getting all in his face like she was good at doing with people at the Hypunjam palace.

_"Yeah_ that's enough time! The princess doesn't need that much work," she shot the older girl an apologetic look for earlier, "and besides, she has all of us here! So she'll be done in no time!"

And Tooth gave a dazzling smile.

'_Yeah, I have all them here._'

...

_Inside, one of the private airport washrooms_

There was so much giggling, shushing, laughing, and screaming going on behind the locked bathroom door. It was all Tooth could do not to bend over in her chair and clutch her stomach as the eight girls, Tatiana, Tia, Tiana, Tina, Tuhina, Tulia, Theena, and Tiati, flit and floated around her like little birds.

Each girl had a different job for getting Tooth ready for the development gala that she and Mr. Bangkot were invited to attend at the Bangkok hotel. They were worked happily on her nails, her feet, her hair, and her makeup. When two had to work together on something they would start to argue and Tooth would have to call them back in line but they were otherwise hard at work, happy, and in sync.

Tooth smiled tenderly.

She knew how much they missed her when she was away at school because she was always brought the fun back and put them in order when they squabbled like arguing sisters.

They weren't sisters, mind you. No, Tooth was an only child and each of her handmaidens were selectively chosen from different homes. They were picked when they were very little and lived in the palace with her and while she was away. Each was of different age too, starting from eight to sixteen.

But they were sisters nonetheless. Growing up that close had a tendency to make you, and the rest of the country, think so.

Tia flickered her purple eyes at Tooth with a big smile as she pulled away and checked her makeup.

"Perfect!"

Tina jumped up too.

"Finished on the shoes, Tooth!"

"And _we_ got the hair done!" Tulia and Tiana beamed as they spun her in her chair. Tooth gasped. She loved the pile on her head! And the bright orange feather was a nice touch.

Tooth went to stand up.

"Whoa! No! Not yet, princess!" Tuhina grinned and Tooth huffed as she plopped back down. She heard all her jewellery jingle around her neck and wrists, and on her ears.

"Not yet?!"

"Almost! Just one more thing!"

That's when Tatiana came over with the royal shringar, then the two of them bent over Tooth's head and placed it on her hairline.

When the large, gold jewelry piece was centered on her forehead and floated down just above the space between her eyebrows, the girls sighed.

"There..._Now_, you're a princess again." And Tooth nodded numbly to agree with Tia's mature voice.

"Yeah..." she mumbled and she finally went to stand up, letting the plastic cover fall from her as she moved in front of the mirror. The girls clapped and gave each other a well done.

Tooth's eyes grew wide at the reflection and her mouth fell open breathlessly.

Sometimes she forgot that she was a princess and this brought it all back. Being in these beautiful clothes, the jewelry, the hair and makeup...and the crown, really made her remember who she was at heart, and who she was representing.

"Girls," she mumbled with a great big, grateful smile. "I love you, you know that, right?"

And Tiati grinned and stepped beside her.

"We know. Now go have fun for us tonight! Then come home so we can have that slumber party!"

Tooth nodded happily, cringing as the gold piece knocked against her forehead. She remembered that only Tatiana would be coming with her to the hotel. The rest would fly back to the island on a tiny plane to the palace.

That's when Tia reached over and gave her an elegant piece of paper.

"And here's your invitation, _princess_! All perfect and ready to go!"

When Tooth read the script, she grinned.

_HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCESS TOOTHIANA HYPUNJAM OF PUNJAM HY LOO_

When was it last since she saw her full name? She couldn't remember. She almost always went by _Thia_ in public or _Tooth_ at home.

It looked like she'd get to sport it one more before the year ended.

And Tiana thought it was the perfect time to say some weird American slang that Tooth had taught her to say long ago.

"Knock 'em dead, Tooth!"

...

_Bangkok, 7:23 pm_

The most prestige hotel in Bangkok city was lit up like an evening jewel.

Its golden pillars and smooth marble glittered with the excitement at being host to the most important people of the Southeast Asian hemisphere. A large banner hung over the biggest and most expensive hall in the hotel. In English and Thai, the words,

_"The 37th Annual Southeast Asian Development Gala"_

were printed in a royal blue and gold pattern. Several well-dressed security guards hung about in the lobby with the reception personnel. The hotel workers and hired caterers were skittering back and forth around them trying to get everything perfect. Meanwhile, the invited guests glided elegantly through them in their beautiful clothes and high status. The development gala brought together all the most powerful people of the Southeast Asian region. Everyone from royalty and parliament and military to religious leaders and corporate business owners were cordially invited.

And that meant Princess Toothiana Hypunjam couldn't wait to get in as she waited in line to enter the grand hall.

In her blue-green flats and jingling gold bangles, she glided happily across the marble floor. The Prime Minister and their two royal guards trailed anxiously behind, alert and polite.

Wearing all her favorite colors, the princess wore a beautiful sari of green, turquoise, and blue. Her top was a modern, one-shoulder blouse that stopped above her midriff and the fabric had beautiful hues of pink in it, along with a soft gold trim along the thin shoulder strap. Her skirt was a fish-tail of the same matching cloth, wrapping around her waist and trailing down behind her in a short train.

It was nice to dress fancy after having been in sweats her whole semester, but all Thia could think was that she was finally being presented as an active royal in global affairs, and she had the papers to prove it.

When they got to the welcome desk, the receptionist's mouth fell a little but Thia didn't see it as she gave a wide smile and said _"Sawatdee kah."_

With a happy hum, Thia signed the paper and the receptionist placed it in a special file, struggling with her own Thai nervously as she spoke.

_"W-We also have your welcome package for you with all the information about tonight, and here is the pamphlet we designed about Punjam Hy Loo for the other guests!"_

When she handed the prime minister the welcome package, Thia eagerly reached over and took the booklet.

The pamphlet had all the information about her country, Punjam Hy Loo.

It was a tiny island nation floating in the Bay of Bengal close to India where the islanders spoke Thai and everyone in the palace was fluent in English. The people were vibrant, friendly, and overlooked by the big countries but they worked hard.

Punjam's main and proud export was peppermint.

They grew acres of it and sold it for agriculture, tea, and as a flavorant for things like ice cream and toothpaste. Because of it, many countries invested in Punjam's farms and the kingdom was well off.

Thia _loved_ peppermint just as much as she loved colors, and was so proud of her roots and where she came from.

As they exchanged a quick formal goodbye, the receptionist wanted to be brave and tried to say one more thing before the princess was out of earshot.

_"I-I like your dress, your highness!"_

"Really?" Thia replied automatically back in English, not even thinking to switch to Thai. "Thanks so much! I-I mean..."

She smiled awkwardly, immediately trying to translate back into Thai but the receptionist's eyes grew wide with relief and delight since her spoke English.

"Sorry princess! Had I known you preferred that I wouldn't have tried to struggle through this translation!"

The blonde sighed but Thia shook her gold shringar crown resting on her hairline. When it banged against her forehead annoyingly, she ignored it while the long orange feather resting in her large bun swayed back and forth playfully.

"Oh don't worry about it," she laughed. "A lot of people forget I don't live there! So half the time I'm trying to translate stuff too."

Thia really only spoke English unless she was back at the palace.

"Yes, but don't you speak Thai?"

Thia shrugged.

"Yeah but not as often as I like," she replied fondly and the receptionist nodded with a small smile.

It was nice to know that the colorful princess was so easygoing.

"Same," she agreed. "I wish I'd practiced more before the all old dignitaries arrived."

"I know! Isn't that the worst? I hate when they look at you funny!" she giggled.

As the two talked, Mr. Ty rolled his eyes good-naturedly. The princess could be so chatty once she got talking. But they were on a tight schedule to meet people.

"But th—" So he coughed to get her attention.

When Thia turned, he rolled his eyes playfully and she threw him a shy grin.

"Princess?"

"Sorry!"

A warm blush bloomed on her tanned cheeks.

Afterwards, she and the receptionist then gave each other a guilty but amicable look before they said one, last warm goodbye and she left the welcome desk with her court. Thia missed how the receptionist watched her leave, being left with a happy feeling from meeting the interesting princess since not many really knew her.

Thia's bubbly existence was almost kept hidden from the limelight.

Embarrassed by her usual blabbing, she flipped through the pamphlet some more to ignore the stares from the people around the lobby.

Immediately a sad smile came on her face as she finished looking through all the familiar pictures of her island.

The Prime Minister frowned when he saw her expression change so he touched her arm and pulled her to a nearby pillar. The guards followed and so the whole group was stopped just before the doors.

When Thia looked up, he had a placid smile on his face. He spoke quietly to her in English so they were both comfortable. He had grown up in the States too.

"Tooth, I am so sorry again that your uncle could not attend this event with me and that you had to. Otherwise you could have been home and relaxing with your sisters right now."

He knew that Tooth had flown back to Punjam because her university was on break right now for two weeks and felt bad that she was forced to work again. But her uncle, the Prince Regent, who was originally invited, had to stay behind to fix a royal issue with the kingdom. He was the younger cousin of Tooth's father who, after passed away when she was 10, took the throne to make all the kingdom decisions because she was too young. Tooth would not take the full title as Queen or the commanding title until she finished her studies.

But Tooth grinned and shook her head at the man (who was basically like an uncle to her)'s apology.

"You're crazy, Mr. Bangkot. I'm thrilled to be invited in his place! I've never been before."

She smirked.

"Besides, one day when I take the crown, I'll be here all the time. This will be an awesome opportunity to showcase my knowledge of the other countries!"

Ty smiled, reassuring himself that she was fine after all. He then proceeded to escort her back to the grand hall.

As they walked, Tooth vaguely thought about what she studied at Fay U.

Her program, Southeast Asian development studies, was essential to her future career but she often wondered what it would be like to have her own life, and take something that _she_ liked. With a secret smile, Tooth thought about the dream she had on the plane earlier about being a dental hygienist who solved crimes for the police.

Tooth laughed at herself.

She realized that maybe she spent too much time sneaking across campus to go check out the School of Dentistry that Fay University was also famous for.

But with a name like _Toothiana_, she'd probably get in even without credentials!

As she scrunched her fist in her skirt, her handmaiden, Tatiana, silently appeared beside her and poked her in the side. A third guard had arrived with her and was busy talking to the other two in hushed tones about security business. Tooth squeaked when her finger touched the bare skin of her slim stomach.

"Tat!" she cried. "You're cold!"

Tat gave a cheeky smile. They hadn't seen each other since getting out of the limo together.

"Sorry Tooth!" she whispered, "but I just wanted to tell you that I have to go upstairs now."

Tooth frowned.

"Already?"

Tat nodded.

"Yes, you know that I can't be seen here with you, remember?"

"Oh yeah," Tooth mumbled disappointingly. "I forgot about the security call."

Tat nodded her head before she reached up and patted her hair self-consciously. They had both dressed with the same hairstyle and in the same style sari. But being the princess, Tooth's had more expensive detail and more jewelry. Tat then reached up to rub the taller girl's tanned arm.

"Oh stop frowning! I'll be upstairs waiting for you. Then you can list all the cute guys that you run into!"

"Oh my god Tat."

Tooth laughed and she rolled her eyes, then reached up and retouched Tat's hair.

"Hang on before you leave, BT," she mumbled. "Your streak's not in the center!"

Tooth pulled Tat's one blonde streak back into the large pile on her head, moving it so its color was perfectly accented against the rest of her dark hair, just like Tooth's.

Purely coincidental, both Tooth and Tatiana were born with one strange streak of natural blonde hair while the rest of their hair was a beautiful, thick and wavy dark brown. Doctors thought their streaks was the result of Poliosis but they couldn't explain why the streaks were so rich and golden yellow, and not pale white like most people's. But it made the two of them special.

It was why Tat always had to follow Tooth everywhere when she came from home school overseas; why she was chosen as a little girl to be the princess' personal handmaiden in the first place. If something happened, she would put her life on the line for the princess as her decoy. Just like all the other seven.

All eight girls were specially chosen to be her decoy protectors because they all looked physically like Tooth, but only Tat was the one with the same blonde streak in her hair.

Tooth and the others affectionately called her 'Baby Tooth' because of it.

When the streak was aligned, Tooth pulled away with a smirk.

"There!" she cheered. "Not as a great as The Original, but it still works!"

And Tat stuck her tongue out at the older woman before pulling her into a hug.

_"_Remember I want that list."

"I promise BT, you'll get it!" she said as she squeezed her smaller body. "Now don't get bored up there without me."

When they pulled away and Tat began walking to the elevators with one of the guards, the latter waved.

"You know I always do!" she called then vanished through the elegant sliding doors. With her presence gone and space beside her empty, Tooth's brilliant grin transformed into a nervous smile.

She touched her coin purse again.

Tooth couldn't wait to fly back home to the palace and see everyone she missed. Even when she left them for the States two-thirds of the year, she never missed an opportunity to fly back and stay with them for break.

But it was a crazy flying schedule to do twice a year.

She still wasn't sure how she managed to enjoy doing it for the past eleven years of her life, but she came to the conclusion a long time ago that she simply loved flying back and forth across the world.

Tooth tried to calm her nerves, thinking about Tat and the other girls and wondering what they doing as she was boldly entering into high society alone.

Maybe Tulia was reading – it was almost eight'o'clock and that's what she usually did by the royal library...

Maybe Tina was stalking that guard she liked so much...

And BT was probably sitting in a chair upstairs, chatting the guard's ear off that she was assigned to stay with – she was just as bad as Tooth.

She grew more homesick. She could almost see the library, and hear Tina slinking down the palaces corridors, even Tatiana's perfume was still in her nose–

Forgetting about all her confident walk into the hotel earlier, Tooth finally opened her purse and snaked around it. The princess didn't say anything as she pulled out her trusty pack of Trident gum and popped a piece of mint candy between her teeth.

Seeing her jittery actions, Prime Minister Ty frowned slightly and leaned toward her worriedly.

She was doing it again.

"Princess, are you okay?"

Tooth grinned weakly with a tiny shrug, still chomping anxiously. But he creased his forehead. Mr. Ty put a hand on her shoulder and it helped her calm down a little. But the princess knew she still freaked him out a little.

"Really," she whispered with a smile, calm washing over her. "I'm fine."

After a few more minutes, the pair and their guards were finally at the front. After they handed their invitations and were let through the grand doors. Tooth's jaw immediately dropped.

"Holy crap."

She missed the disapproving glance from her prime minister – he was such a father figure.

The grand hall of the hotel was decked out. The ceiling glittered, the curtains were rich with color, and every surface had an expensive vase with either a flower or candle floating in it. Several times she saw a camera flash go off from the few private photographers hired to document the event. Tooth felt her senses go into overdrive.

She took a few subconscious steps forward–

–and bumped into someone and they stumbled forward. Tooth immediately backed up and watched as a tall, older gentleman turned to look at her.

"I'm so sorry!" she squeaked with a shy grin and he returned the gesture. "It is all right," the man politely returned then walked away.

Tooth thought that was the end of that as she turned around, but then she heard him mumble under his throat.

"_Peliknya mata dia,"_ he mumbled in Malay to himself. Tooth didn't speak it but she understood it. And it made all her previous anxiety come rushing back.

_What strange eyes..._

Tooth bit her lip as she flicked her gaze across all the people in the room.

She knew she was pretty in her own way but sometimes the weirdness of her eye color came back to bite her in the butt.

Tooth was born with magenta-colored eyes, a dark-purplish-pink that was both the jealousy and oddity of everyone around her. They somehow worked with her dark hair, tanned skin, and blonde streak so she loved them all the same.

But it was just the peculiar stares, thinking she wore crazy contacts, that she had to live with.

She sighed to herself as she continued picking up on the conversations of other people around her, mentioning her appearance.

_(Vietnamese) "Oh! Wow, look at her eyes General Vu!"_ said one man.

_(Thai) "Does she wear...what do you call it? Contacts?"_ mumbled a couple.

_(Hindi) "Why did she highlight only __one__ piece of her hair?"_ one old woman quipped. _"Young people today!"_

That's when Prime Minister Ty walked up beside her and read her expression. He frowned.

"Are you listening to their conversations again?" he whispered like it was a bad habit of hers that she needed to stop.

Tooth huffed again and glared awkwardly at the floor.

"What? They're all talking about me."

Minister Ty put a hand on her bare shoulder and squeezed thoughtfully.

"Well, I keep _telling_ you that if you taught yourself to speak the languages, then you wouldn't have to keep listening to them and not be able to do anything about it," he remarked smartly. "You could tell them off."

Tooth whipped her head at the middle-aged prime minister and gave him a coy smirk.

"You're my _Prime Minister_, Mr. Bangkot! And you're telling me to be rude to people?!"

When he shrugged, she rolled her eyes and nudged him slightly in the shoulder. She knew, like always, he was just trying to make her feel better about herself.

So many strange things Tooth had to live with...her eyes, her weird blonde streak, her messed up flying commitments.

And to top it all, what the doctors called her, "Incredibly Advanced Language Comprehension".

It meant Tooth understood every language or text around her with a complex degree of proficiency. It didn't matter the language; if you said it, signed it, or wrote it, Tooth knew exactly what you were saying.

But she wasn't a polyglot. She couldn't speak a language unless she learned by the book like everyone else. It made absolutely no sense to her or her court but Tooth liked to pretend that she inherited some weird genes from her parents.

The doctors called it remarkable, she called 'nifty'.

As a precaution, her palace kept it a secret from the rest of the world because they didn't want to expose her to too much media. Tooth thought it was kind, and it allowed her to be able to go to school in the States like a regular girl. They always looked out for her, even now as they funded for her private education at Fay University. She had a quiet dorm life in the small city of Medford where she only roomed with other students from abroad. They wanted to make sure she had a normal life, as per request of Prime Minister Ty and her caregiver (and private tutor when she returned home to Punjam from school break), Mr. Sanderson.

The trip down memory lane ended as Minister Ty patted her shoulder again and urged her to start meeting other guests. So with a small huff and a forced smile, Tooth bared the brunt of Southeast Asia's dignitaries for the next hour.

Maybe things would get better.

...

_One hour later, 8:43 pm_

"Excuse me, Prime Minister, I think I am going to relieve myself to the ladies' washroom."

Mr. Bangkot blinked away from his conversation with a finance director and turned for a guard.

"Shall I have security accompany you, princess?"

"No need, I'll be right back," she assured him and she quickly flew out of the hall on her ballet flats.

When Tooth got to the washroom, she waited until the door closed before she sighed dramatically and slumped against it.

_"Who knew a development gala could be so boring?!"_

She was sure that a group of leaders passionate about helping their people would be more lively and interesting company! But they were all stuffy and kept complaining about their governments fighting.

As she went to wash her hands at the pristine golden sinks, Tooth was fuming under her regal facade.

In her seminars back at Fay U, the students got up and talked about the same issues these people were talking about...but they were ten times more exciting! She even remembered getting up herself in class several times and debating with her classmates on issues with so much determination that by the end of lecture, they'd all come out as friends, rambling on about what changes they'd do to help the world.

But the people here, the _actual_ Southeast Asian leaders involved in making those changes happen, were just...just...Tooth sighed as she shut the tap.

"I swear," she muttered to herself as she fixed herself in the mirror. She fingered her blonde streak fondly. "When I become Queen, these people are gonna hear me and _wake up_ when I talk at the next Gala!"

That's when something caught her eye.

Tooth whirled away from the mirror and stared around the washroom. She had been alone when she came in and hadn't heard the door open since. The black marble of the washroom glittered with cleanliness and the glass was smudge free. All the stalls were open and she could see under each of them, and there were no shoes to prove her point.

So then why did she feel the hairs on the back of her neck shoot up like lightning rods?

Tooth shivered, feeling goosebumps run up her bare arms and around her midriff. She rubbed her shoulder as her heartbeat increased.

Then she saw it. A shadow was outside in the hall, seen underneath the door.

She tensed, freezing completely and holding her breath. The same question, _"what?",_ kept repeating in her head. She tried to ignore the silence that suddenly drowned out the sound of the party down the hall.

Then after several more seconds the shadow vanished, almost as if it was pulled away. Tooth's dark fuchsia eyes squinted uneasily.

How was it possible for a shadow to up and disappear like that without the person walking away?

But she didn't wait to find out.

Tooth took quick steps to the door and with shaky fingers, pulled it open. She peeked around slowly. There were a few people down the hallway just mingling outside the grand hall but otherwise it looked empty and safe. She exhaled shakily.

Tooth didn't know what she would've done if someone had tried to creep on her.

She wasn't very athletic except for that she liked to go running sometimes on campus if she didn't have anything to do. But other than the mediocre punches and kicks that her guards taught her how to throw, Tooth knew she was a goner in a hostage situation. Tooth then scurried back down the hallway and back into the warm light of the gala. As she entered, she despondently hoped to never put herself or any of her handmaidens in that kind of trouble.

...

Almost an hour and a half hour later, the development gala began its cocktail hour.

People had been taking turns getting up on stage for the discussion period, answering questions and addressing issues they really wanted to say. Tooth never went up because she was still too new to the scene but Prime Minister Bangkot did, reading her uncle's speech to the crowd on his financial dry spell proposal.

When a break was called for quick refreshments, Tooth sighed and began to turn lethargically toward the snack table like everyone else.

The party _really_ needed a pick-me-up. Or a dance.

"Excuse me!"

That's when someone cleared their throat and tapped the mic back on the floor.

"But can I have everyone's attention?"

The new voice shifted the crowd's interest.

When Tooth turned to see who it was, her eyes widened.

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "The Perfect Heist" — Blue Stahli (Thanks ToothianaFrost for helping me with my Malay, along with The One Who Is All, who shared with me the interesting effects of actual Poliosis)


	3. A Dance Gone Wrong

"**It's time to kill the lights and shut the DJ down. Tonight we're taking over. No one's getting out."**

* * *

Tooth moved her body to the beat of the bass. The air was thick with heat and it made her skin tingle so she wiped a quickly wiped her sweaty neck then went back to dancing.

She didn't know how, she didn't understand why, but as all the guests of the gala danced with her for the past two hours, she didn't care!

Tooth flicked her fuchsia eyes across the moving dance floor, her energy on high. Her dark hair bopped on top her head and her royal shringar bounced in the center of her forehead. As she was holding hands with a friendly diplomat, she bounced on her feet and searched the crowd. The room had gone semi-dark, strobe lights flying across the hall and they filled her head with happiness.

She grinned and pushed her earlier thoughts from her head.

"_I take back everything I said about these leaders being boring!" _Tooth happily cheered in her head.

_"They really know how to party!" _

She then clapped when her favourite part came on and eyed the room again.

When she couldn't find the guy who had come up stage earlier to speak to the crowd, she frowned.

* * *

"_I apologize for the interruption ladies and gentleman, but I've noticed that many of you look like you want to fall asleep in your shoes," the man on stage said and they all chuckled, releasing tension in the room. _

_Tooth smiled crookedly. _

_The man was young about her age with nicely combed brown hair and a charming smile._

"_Would anyone be upset if I request some music to play during this break?" he asked boldly but no one objected._

"_We would be upset if you didn't!" the Indonesian president cried heartily and the room laughed. _

_So the man on stage grinned handsomely and nodded his head._

"_Alright my friends!" he spoke into the mic one last time. "Enjoy the rest of the break!" _

_And several people in the crowd clapped._

* * *

Tooth laughed as the diplomat twirled her in a spin, letting the memory leave her.

So after the quick dance during cocktail hour, the rest of the gala was rushed so that everyone could back to dancing at the end of the night. They finished their formal discussion around 10:30 p.m. and for the rest of the evening, Princess Thia was getting her jam on with the other South Asian guests.

And it was all thanks to that handsome hero that Tooth had been saved for the night!

But he was nowhere in sight.

Suddenly the music got louder and the whole room cheered and everyone stomped their feet.

Tooth grinned as she moved to the DJ's beat. After a while, the diplomat let go of her hand and waved as he moved deeper into the crowd to find another friend.

Tooth rocked her body to the jam of the song as she danced alone for a second. When she spotted Mr. Bangkot doing what looked like the jive with an older senator, she burst out laughing.

They looked ridiculous! Two old guys trying to keep up with what was basically club music was something she could not unsee.

But as she watched them fail miserably, she smiled sadly. Tooth wondered guiltily if all these rich and privileged people should even be allowed to enjoy themselves when so many were depending on them.

That's when something grabbed her hand and turned her around.

She gasped with a glare, ready to fight but it was unnecessary.

In fact, her body did the opposite reaction when she came face to face with the handsome guy who had called for the dance in the first place.

"Your highness!" he cried over the sound of the bass with a grin. "Dance with me?!"

Tooth nodded with a shy grin and let him lead her further into the crowd.

Like she was gonna say _NO_ to a gorgeous brunette who wanted to hold her hand!

As they danced their way to the center of the crowd, Tooth's eyes watched all the dignitaries shuffle and jump. Their energy made her body unwind from all its earlier tension.

Maybe stuffy rich parties weren't so bad after all!

She then blushed with her mouth slightly open as the handsome guy holding her hand immediately stopped and turned to face her. He was grinning and with a warm bow, the two began to dance off-center of the crowd, close the left end of the hall. Tooth gave him a wide smile and for the next two songs the two of them were a pair.

Tooth never stopped to think about Mr. Bangkot, the guards or Tat upstairs.

Nothing! In this moment, she felt infinite.

She was just _Tooth_ not Princess Thia, invited royal guest to the annual forum.

Here with this young man, trapped in a sea of people just being..._human_, she never felt more alive and at one with strangers.

By the last song, Tooth had her eyes closed.

She bopped her head side to side and bounced on her toes. She only focused on the pounding beat of the bass in her chest and the guy's hand she was still clutching.

Until, he pulled her toward him and wrapped his hand around her waist.

Tooth's eyes snapped open.

Her bare skin felt like it was on fire at the spot where his fingers pressed gently. She shivered under his touch when he laughed good-heartedly. As the song was ending, she stared up at him expectantly.

She couldn't believe her good luck as she gazed into his dark, green eyes.

What a moment to tell Tat!

Tooth didn't feel her body gradually stop dancing as she started to get lost in the dark shimmer of his pupils.

She was so enthralled with his attention to her, she barely heard the last note play.

And she was so nervous about how they would dance next...that she didn't notice all the lights go out or see his gun until he set it off above her head.

The gunshots fired at the ceiling set off the entire crowd into a frenzy.

Tooth screamed as the blast from his rifle rang in her ears. When she tried to lift her hands to cover her ears, the guy quickly moved to grip her arm. Her bracelets jingled madly against her dark wrists.

_"Don't move!"_ he hissed darkly and Tooth automatically obeyed.

Her body shook like a leaf as she became frozen.

After a few seconds, the emergency lights turned on at the sides of the hall. They blared loudly but didn't give enough light for normal people to see with.

In dizzying shock, Tooth watched as all the guests around her ran in different directions. They looked afraid and alert, trying to find their groups or where the sound had come from; no one had registered the gun he was holding in his hand to even notice it yet. The music had stopped as the DJ made a dash for the exit too.

Tooth whimpered slightly as his grip got tighter.

The excited thumping in her heart from the dancing was gone, replaced with a painful throbbing. He wasn't looking at her but was searching the crowd like mad for someone.

She desperately wondered where Mr. Bangkot was and hoped that her guards were looking for her.

When she felt him move, the guy tugged her forcefully with one hand, his other still gripping the gun to the ceiling.

Tooth wobbly tried to fight back. It was impossible though with his strength and all the people who kept bumping into her to get away. She kept trying to meet their eyes to signal for help but to her terror, everyone was too busy worrying about their own lives to see her properly. Their fear heightened as the shadows grew around them without the hotel's lights.

Then, as quickly as he was walking, the man suddenly let go of her arm. Her skin felt raw and tender but she didn't have time to rub it with her shaky hands.

The guy had immediately pushed her in the middle of the back and she went flying forward.

Tooth cried loudly, watching in almost slow motion as the colors of the hall and the people running around her were rushing at her sideways.

She instinctively threw her hands out in front of her to balance her stumbling. At any moment, she knew she was going to get powerfully T-boned by someone from the side.

But it never came when a figure dressed in all black suddenly appeared in front of her. He caught her easily and broke her fall.

Tooth rapidly heaved in deep breaths as she clutched onto the mysterious figure gratefully. The room started spinning slightly and her ears still rang from all the chaos.

"_Princess!? PRINCESS THIA!?"_

She faintly heard the scream from far away but when she looked up, all the color drained in her face and her adrenaline peaked with anxiety.

The figure that caught her was dressed in an all-black uniform with thick gloves and a bulletproof vest. From the size, she knew it was a tall and full-bodied man.

But she was only guessing...she couldn't tell because he had a black gas mask covering his face. With his two golden, yellow goggles staring down at her, Tooth shrunk in his grip.

She tried to scream for help but she ended up stammering pathetically.

Her heart felt like it was going into palpitation.

The man wasted no further time just like his partner did. He lifted her easily, clutching his hand across her mouth so she couldn't scream.

Tooth tried to squirm out of his arms but the tightness of her skirt constricted her legs from kicking out and he was able to storm through the crowd toward a darker exit of the hall.

As she was being carried out, another man had got up on stage and was clapping loudly into the mic.

People in the room instantly turned their heads to the sound and cowered in fear at the sight of the visitor and at his face, several cried out in terror.

They knew who he was.

Pitch Black finished clapping and placed his arms behind his back in his signature posture.

His creepy golden, yellow eyes were like a cat's reflecting in the dark against the crowd. He watched like a master as all his hired hitmen suddenly appeared mingled within the crowd. Their weapons were pointed at all the hired guards and security for the event.

Before he leaned into the mic, he smacked his pale lips thoughtfully.

He then gave the people a twisted smile.

"They don't call me a TERRORist for nothing, my dear friends," he said in a deep, English voice.

By the time Pitch's goons had begun unleashing havoc on all the party guests, Tooth was long gone, having been pushed into a black van and driven away from the horrors going on inside the Bangkok hotel.

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "Blow" – Ke$ha


	4. Now You See Jack, Now You Don't

"_**No please! Stop!"**_

"_**Shut it up! SHUT IT UP, THIS INSTANT!"**_

_**A white light overhead was blinding.**_

"_**Please don't! I-Who are you?!"**_

"_**Doctor, the arms –"**_

"_**Tie them down! This metal table is strong enough."**_

_**The metal was cold.**_

"_**Who are you people?! Where am I!?"**_

"_**We have to begin the tests. Before P–"**_

"_**Aaaah!"**_

Tooth cried out but no one really heard her because she had been gagged.

She had tried not to think about being in that worst case scenario but somehow the image, so real and frightening, popped into her head.

Then again, getting kidnapped from a hotel with a bag over your head and being in a speeding car for what feels like hours only to find out you're in a warehouse in the middle of nowhere, does that to a person.

Her purplish-pink eyes shot all around the room like a scared hummingbird. Her hands were bound tightly behind her back and her feet were tied too. She had tried earlier to get up and peek out a dirty window but she fell and her long skirt tangled around her legs and made it hard to move again.

It also didn't help that a long black rope was tying her bound wrists to the concrete wall behind her.

With an angry glare, the princess gave the locked door across the room a shaky huff.

She knew there would be guards outside, standing watch in case she did anything or anyone tried to get in. But the question was who were they guarding her for? And why?

Princess Thia was no threat to anyone and her island was so tiny, not many people even knew who she was, let alone that she was a princess.

What would they want with her?

Or worse, her kingdom?

As she furiously tried to twist around again, she heard muffled voices drifting through the air vents above her.

Two French guys and an Englishman were having a loud conversation from somewhere far away.

Tooth didn't speak French but with her gift, she understood. She clambered backwards up the wall behind her as best she could and craned her neck to hear.

_"...with me and I would sooner..."_

_"...7...it's sooner gone than..."_

_"Zut alors! Stef...one tooth so I—"_

"ENOUGH!" she heard the deep, English voice yell.

Tooth flinched but there was no shringar on her forehead to bang against it. It had fallen off before she arrived.

She continued to listen as her heart pounded under her sari's blouse and her makeup was sticky around her eyes.

She really needed some gum to chew.

"That plane...I NEED...! And if it is NOT delivered—"

_"Non sir! NON—!"_

When someone gave a bloodcurdling scream and Tooth screamed behind the cloth.

Was he... dead? She would surely be next!

Tooth bravely tried to hold back her stinging tears as she collapsed against the wall.

A princess did not cry.

But after everything she had gone through, she officially _hated_ being one.

...

Meanwhile, outside the breeze around the warehouse grew more blustery.

Pitch's men were patrolling the warehouse wearing their creepy gas masks with the yellow goggles. It helped them to see better in the dark for anything that moved but so far everything was okay.

Except for the loud whistling of the wind in their complink earpieces.

One guard was actually busy giving a bearing to another when the wind got so loud. His voice buzzed into the mic.

"Sorry? Repeat that?" one guard asked the other.

"I said –_scchzzz-_ turning –_scchzz_z- and a –_scchzzz– _nothing to my –_scchzzz!_"

"Man, your end is terrible. Speak clearer or move."

"I didn't –_schhzzz_– you nee –_scchhzzz_– oh damn, this wind –_scccchzzzzzzz!_"

The guard reached up and switched channels to another guard but his was making the same whooshing noise from the wind. He decided to shut it off for the time being.

"I don't get paid enough for this," he muttered to himself and readjusted his gun in its holster.

"I thought you didn't get paid at all."

The new voice from behind made the guard spin around but then the wind gave a particular large burst of speed and made him stumble back a bit from his high post.

When he took two steps back, Jack stabbed him in the leg from behind and threw him over his shoulders, sending him flying over the guard rail to the ground below.

When he looked back, he rubbed an eye and began moving silently to the nearest door.

He kept the same mantra pounding through his head.

_I'm coming for you, Pitch._

_..._

No one spotted Jack as he masterfully used his stealth training to the best of his ability.

Spying on people? Piece of cake.

Avoiding the cops? Child's play.

Infiltrating a crime lord's hideout crawling with heavily armed guards and highly trained hitmen?

Jack resisted the urge to grin impishly as he hung upside down below a grated floor as one goon walking over him didn't see him.

When the guard turned, he silently flipped himself over and moved in the other direction.

Heh, yeah no problem.

Wherever he'd learnt to do this job, he still didn't know. But all he knew was that they trained them _really well_.

It relieved him slightly too since he'd been trying to follow up on the dead 'ELF's note about Pitch for almost a month. The **tooth** clue was still a mystery to him but he decided that he'd confront Pitch about it...that or break him until he did.

No other criminal had survived a falling out with Jack when he chased him.

But just because he knew Pitch Black was far more nefarious, didn't mean he doubted his own strength and smarts to play it right.

When he found the boiler room, Jack kneeled up beside the door then fished a lock pick out of his pants. He glared as he carefully picked the easy-to-break-into door and exhaled calmly when the door didn't squeak.

Then with a quick look behind him, he crouched inside.

After fleeting his gaze around the dark room, he safely moved to the main thermostat. It was large and controlled the entire heating and for the warehouse.

He smirked.

As his ungloved fingers twitched, he twisted the knob.

...

Tooth felt all her goosebumps rise across her skin. She squirmed uncomfortably in her tangled skirt and tried to get her legs under her and away from the vent's mouth.

It suddenly got freezing!

...

Jack ran a hand through his hair.

When he felt the AC blow cold air into his brown bangs, he stood up and walked out of the room.

He tightened his leather glove on his left hand as he strode back down corridor to another hallway. When he reached the guardrail at the corner, he paused and took a step back into the shadows.

As he became one with them, Jack narrowed his eyes and looked down to the ground floor.

_"Pitch_," he spat under his breath.

The tall, lanky man, with his spidery black hair and almost grey skin was walking across the cement. His hands were firmly placed behind his back in his signature posture. Several of his hitmen were surrounding him, wearing their ghoulish yellow-goggled gas masks.

Jack wasn't scared in the slightest, but he was perturbed by the sight.

Down below was the man he'd been trying to track for almost a full _year!_ It made his blood boil to see Pitch so calm and wearing that hideous smile he always sported on his face.

When Pitch stopped the men to bark out some quick orders, Jack leaned forward the tiniest bit to eavesdrop.

"Make sure that tooth is kept under _lock and key_, Hugo. Am I clear? Or you will end up just like Stefano. Another broken horse for me to...put down, so to speak."

When he snickered, Jack's jaw tensed. Those yellow eyes were so bright from way up high.

"Yes, I understand."

Pitch nodded and began to continue.

"Oh and such a forgetful mind I have under such fun conditions! I believe it is now time for us to send word to the other Nightmares about col–"

**"**_**Agent****, your **__**newest mission**__**...**__**eyes, huh?**__**...most of ours don't...where to start?"**_

Jack pulled back and nearly slammed into the wall behind him. He tensed at the last minute then gritted his teeth.

Another broken memory.

Jack rubbed his eye again, silently cursing as he tried to understand to rest of Pitch's plan.

But it was nearly impossible.

"–Moscow. Flight 7. We've been following him for weeks so we are certain."

Pitch gave him a twisted smile and raised a pale, bony hand to pat his henchman on the back. But when the man flinched, Pitch stopped midway and pretended to catch air through his fingers instead. He sighed gratefully.

They finished talking and were already walking out of earshot.

Jack tightened his gloved fist, frustrated that, yet again, he'd missed a chance to beat Pitch to a shitty pulp.

But he knew Pitch wouldn't leave just yet. If anything he was returning to a room to finish up some more evil schemes before he left the country again and headed back to his real homebase.

He would sneak again and get him alone in that room. Jack made sure of it.

But first, now that he knew, he had to steal the **tooth** Pitch already had in the warehouse! Whatever they were, he knew needed to stick a wrench in Pitch's plan.

And since no one even knew Jack existed, that would be ten times more fun.

A boot suddenly appeared around the corner and Jack's subconscious instantly kicked in.

When the guard spotted him, he was already raising his weapon and lifting a finger to his ear complink.

"Tar–" but a huge burst of wind from the air conditioning vent beside him blurred out his words. As he was momentarily cutoff, Jack took the opening and grabbed for his throat. He brought him hard against the concrete wall and the guard coughed but it wasn't loud enough over the sound of the vent.

With quick hands, Jack turned the weapon on the guard and pushed its sharp end through his bulletproof vest. It was with such brute strength that the guard stood there shocked before he collapsed silently against the wall.

Jack pulled off his gas mask.

...

Two hitmen were walking side-by-side on patrol when a third guard approached them. They were puzzled at first since he didn't seem to be wearing a vest or carrying a weapon. He talked to them through his complink under his mask.

"Bathroom break," he said nonchalantly. "You know how much time it takes to unbuckle all that off."

They both nodded understandingly, their yellow goggles moving up and down like ghostly lanterns against the dark.

"Kinda cold in here too," he remarked. "Maybe I'll also grab a coat."

"Okay, so go back to your post now and get them."

"Sure," Jack raised his eyebrow under the mask. "Or maybe I could just borrow yours."

"What do y–" But Jack had already moved forward and side kicked them both. When they tried to catch themselves, the air vent above them blew wind so hard against them, they tumbled back. The echoing was drowned out by the whooshing sounds.

When they struggled to get up, Jack had already yanked their weapons out of their hands and kicked them into the boiler room.

Now he could play.

Realizing their guns were gone, both guards prepared to take him on. They both thought two beefy guys like them could take down one shorter, skinnier man.

They threw punches, but Jack's reflexes were faster. He jerked left when one punched right and knocked out one of the goggle lights in his masks. And when they tried a combo approach together, Jack weaved in between them.

His legs were long and his muscles flexible and when he passed through them, he grinned.

Jack pulled a long cord from one of the men's belts used for grappling and stretched it out behind him. When he turned, he used the long piece to tie one guy's wrists and the other's neck together. Then with controlled momentum, he twisted back in front of them and brought his foot down on the cord. It yanked the two of them down to the ground.

One guard broke his neck.

Jack didn't waste time afterwards. After they were left on the floor, with only one writhing and gasping in pain, he bolted down the hallway and disappeared into the shadows.

By the time the warehouse went on alert, Jack had already taken out seven more men.

He jumped them from the shadows and used his quick feet and agile body to avoid making noise.

But they never saw him coming and going.

...

"_What?!"_

Tooth flinched as the guard outside her door screamed.

"Well who is it?! _You don't know?_...If Pitch finds out th– Oh they moved him? To the sub-basement, why the hell...Oh damn...Fifteen are dead!?"

Tooth's breathing grew erratic.

Who was in the warehouse? Who was killing all of the men? Wait...

_Pitch was here?_

That meant Pitch Black, the British terrorist, had kidnapped her?!

She knew who he was. He was considered a crime lord and put on the international wanted list for years.

But no one had ever caught him. And now here she was in the middle of his _hideout_ surrounded by his men, and a new killer on the loose.

_A killer._..she fumbled with her tied-up wrists again anxiously and her bangles jingled loudly.

What if he was another criminal? Some other evil rival coming to kill her instead? Like another crime lord maybe or hitman? She continued to listen.

"Well don't worry! The to–"

"Sig? Sig, what's wr– "

Tooth screamed behind her gag as a loud boom was heard and their gurgled voices stopped.

She waited for more. For the door to smash open or gunshots to go off.

But...nothing. There was only silence on the other end.

That was until the vent above her opened up and blew all this frigid air into her face.

"Mmmfhmmm!" she cried behind the cloth as the wind blew all her hair out of its bun. It tumbled around her shoulders.

When the whooshing stopped, she opened her eyes and found a figure dressed in all black, kneeling directly in front of her.

When the eerie yellow goggles turned up to face her, Tooth went deathly still.

She failed to notice how he stopped himself from lunging at her at the last second.

...

Jack froze as he stared through the yellow goggles.

It wasn't Pitch's **tooth **they were guarding.

He let his tight fist drop at his side and his knife clattered on the ground beside him.

The game just got a little more complex.

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "Awakening" – Celldweller


	5. Fall of a Princess, Rise of a Thief

**I** officially just handed in my last assignment for the semester so I'm sitting in my PJs and striped socks right now and writing out the rest of the chapters to come. Expect more chapters to be posted in the coming (warmer) weeks. Haha and as always, thanks to all you guys who read/followed this far! I hope it's as interesting reading a spy thriller as it is writing one. I'm having a blast! Especially with the fight scenes because I have to look up techniques and videos and most guys in class think I'm learning to fight now. And don't be afraid to ask or PM me if you got a concern. All your reviews make me smile and I love how frazzled most of you sound hehe. (:

* * *

"**One breath in this moment, we'll stay till we're chosen.  
And through it all, with our eyes wide open, we'll fight 'till we're broken."**

"**We rise and fall."**

* * *

He was ready to kill it.

He was ready to steal it.

Instead, the two stared at each other for the longest time, with one trying to calculate his risks, and the other trying not to black out.

When the initial penetrating fear wore off, Tooth whimpered behind her gag and tried to scramble further against the wall to get away from him as she watched his goggles look her over.

He took in her clothes, long flowing fabrics of blues, greens and gold, and he watched her shiver as the vent blew cold air on her bare arms and midriff.

From her dark Asiatic features, he guessed she was from around here, but her smudged makeup ruined her stunning face. Her hair was dark and wavy except for one strange blonde streak.

And she had these huge, expressive eyes that seemed to drink in everything, eyes with a color he couldn't make out in the shadows of the room but knew they weren't average.

The unfamiliar guest narrowed his eyes behind the goggles and moved slowly toward her, careful not to make any sudden movements.

When he was sure she wouldn't move, he reached up his hands. Tooth flinched, scared of a new weapon appearing and not at all prepared (or relieved) when she watched where his hands were actually going.

A moment later, his gas mask was off.

The cool air rushed around his face and blew his bangs into his eyes, but he didn't move.

He stared at her with a serious gaze as she took in his profile, then raised a gloved finger to his lips and narrowed his eyes. He needed her to be silent.

Tooth felt all the breath rush out of her nose.

Her heart pounded a little more painfully in her chest.

Her face grew really warm.

She took in his maple-colored eyes and perfectly messy brown hair that fell above his eyes through the moonlight in the dirty window. She also noticed his strong jaw and he had a couple of white hairs sprinkled around his scalp.

But he didn't look that much older than she was. He was maybe a year or two older so she guessed the white hair was probably genetic or from the stress that came with the job.

_Wait. His job...Yeah, his JOB._

_His job killing people. LIKE YOU._

Tooth abruptly stopped staring and jerked forward.

She tried to hit his jaw with her head, to get him away, but his reflexes were quicker.

The unmasked stranger pressed a hand to her chest and pushed her back hard against the wall.

The force of it was so strong that it knocked the breath out of Tooth and her eyes bugged out as she watched his gaze go from serious to cold.

"Don't even _think_ about it," he whispered darkly and she heaved deeply, trying to ignore his large palm resting slightly above her breasts. All thoughts of him being cute flew out the window.

He scared the shit out of Tooth.

The guy then quickly moved his hands behind her head and without a second thought he untied the gag, letting it fall into Tooth's lap. When she felt the cold air dance around her mouth, she parted her lips ready to scream, but he quickly covered her mouth with his hand.

Tooth froze as he leaned back down to whisper to her.

"This is a warning," he breathed over the shell of her ear, his voice deep and husky. "Be _quiet_ and _stay hidden_."

Tooth said nothing, visibly shivering under his touch, but the stranger took her silence as an understanding. When he moved his hand away, he reached back for his knife on the ground. She gave a shaky exhale and licked her dry lips.

"S-So you're not going t–" but he was immediately in her face again, holding a finger to his mouth.

The blade was held tightly in its grip.

Tooth chewed in the inside of her cheek. Her eyes began to sting with tears but she inhaled sharply and fought them down. As he moved around her and cut the binds on her wrists and ankles, he was relieved that she spoke English at least. It would make communicating with her much easier.

Once they were off, Tooth gratefully went to raise her hands to rub them but he caught them tightly and their jingles echoed loudly around the room.

He eyed her jewelry carefully then, flicking his brown eyes back to her round ones, he began to take them off slowly.

Tooth raised her eyebrows. He only wore one glove on his left while his milky, white skin on his right contrasted brightly against the dark.

"What are y–" But he gave her a hard look, like it was dumbest question to ask at the moment.

Which it was.

When all the bangles were placed on the floor, he looked at her expectedly.

Tooth understood and shakily reached up to unhook her large gold earrings and pulled down a gold arm band she had encircling her left bicep. She failed to notice how he pulled out the long, orange feather that was still stuck in her hair.

He stared at it for a second then eyed her weirdly.

This girl _really_ liked a lot of colors.

When she was done unhooking a large gold choker around her neck, she moved into a kneel, but when he gestured at something on her blouse with his finger, Tooth looked down to her neck again.

A thin gold chain was still hiding under her sari. Pulling it out, she stared at it deeply.

It was a long, gold necklace with four, tiny, rainbow feathers on the end.

As she squeezed the chain, Tooth glanced up at him with a hard look.

"I can't part with this," she mouthed softly.

She watched him stare at it for a moment before he stood up so Tooth fished it down into her shirt again, close to her heart as always, then she tried getting up too.

Tooth stumbled as she tried to stretch her knees from being on the ground for so long. Thinking it was her long skirt that was still tangled around her legs, he flashed out his knife again and held her steady. Tooth watched as he cut the fabric until a whole piece was gone. Now the skirt was above her knees and gave her the ability to lift her legs easy.

When he stood to his full height, he held out his ungloved hand for her to take.

Tooth grabbed it nervously and let him help her stand. The touch was electric and his fingertips were like ice but when he went to move away, Tooth pulled back. He turned to eye her suspiciously but was met with the scared gaze of the dark-haired beauty.

"Who are you?" she mouthed through shaky lips.

He blinked before he glared back at the door ahead of them.

"Just call me Jack," he answered in his tenor voice so deep that the shortness of his name sent a chill down into Tooth's stomach. When she didn't move, he pulled his hand out of hers quickly.

"Come on," he muttered and he grabbed her upper arm and pulled her along with him.

...

Outside the door, other than the two guards he had killed that were holding her hostage, the entire corridor was empty. No one had come to check on her yet.

Jack rubbed his eye then quickly ushered her into the hall. He gestured for her to keep close as he moved ahead of her, his fingers twitching at his side.

Tooth tried to follow the way he placed and moved his feet. It was a bit hard considering he had much longer legs than her and he seemed more...lithe and more graceful on the balls of his feet. But she gave it her best, pretending she was in a game of laser tag and Jack was her partner.

It helped her feel like she was at her friend's twelve-year-old birthday party all over again. You know, minus the smell of wood and burning metal.

Or...was that blood?

She began to chew the inside of her cheek again. Pitch's men took her purse and she still felt anxious without her gum.

Tooth nearly bumped into Jack when he got to the end of the hallway and craned his neck to look around it. Jack wasn't exactly six feet, but she still felt incredibly small next him, seeing as she barely came up to his chin. _'Damn my shortness!'_ she cursed in her head.

When it looked like the coast was clear, Jack beckoned her with his finger and she tiptoed on her flats after him, wringing her naked wrists together. The corridor was freezing from the blowing AC but Jack looked unfazed as he pushed up his sleeves.

She still couldn't trust this guy, no matter how much he'd just done for her and...

...how...cutehewas–but the point _WAS_...for all she knew he was just stealing her from one criminal to deliver to another! But he was showing concern for her well-being at the moment and if that was what it took to get her out of this place, then that was enough.

She could figure out how to ditch him later and get help.

When they stepped over the dead bodies, Tooth pretended they weren't there and kept walking.

Yeah, she _definitely _couldn't trust him.

On the way around the corpses, Jack reached down and grabbed two silencer guns from both the men's holsters. After he checked how many rounds each had, he shoved one into his belt behind him and held the other tightly. He ran a hand through his hair stressfully.

Normally Jack hated guns. They made too much sound and caused a lot of collateral damage when he tried not to leave a trace. He was much better equipped at incapacitating someone with his hands when they couldn't spot him. He was good at being invisible to others.

But now that he had to protect this girl, and with the warehouse was on red alert, it would shorten the time he needed to get her away.

He still wondered what Pitch wanted with a tooth and a girl. But whether they were for different plans or the same, Jack knew he had to get her out.

Then he could figure out what to do with her himself.

When they turned the hall and entered another empty one, Tooth thought it was as good a time as any to let her curiosities slip.

"Are you sure you know where you're going?" she whispered under her breath, glad he spoke English. Jack didn't say anything, thinking his silence was a loud enough message for her to shut up.

"How are you going to protect me if it's just you against like, a thousand?"

He gritted his teeth and flexed his ungloved fingers as they walked under a vent. It blew loud air into their faces.

"J-Jack," she tried out the name on her tongue. "Are you an assas–"

"Okay you need to _be QUIET!" _he whispered harshly as he turned to face her. "Did you forget what I said back there? So _stop_ asking me questions, _otherwise_ we are both f–"

Suddenly a long spray of bullets erupted over their heads.

Tooth yelled and covered her ears and Jack grabbed her and pushed her behind him.

"Keep moving!" he cried over the shots and Tooth sprinted down the hall in her blue-green flats.

Jack clicked the safety off his gun and spun quickly behind him. He narrowed his brown eyes and shot two, cold shots into the guard across the hall. When the hitman fell, Jack turned back around–

– only to hear Tooth's shoes screech to a halt as another shadow moved in front of her from a side hall.

She opened her mouth to yell out but Jack suddenly appeared at her side and flung her against the wall.

As she pressed herself to it, she watched Jack duck under the hitman's swipe with his weapon and spin into a flawless hook kick with his back leg. His heel came into contact with the guard's jaw so fast, Tooth gasped when the man cried out suddenly and stumbled away.

Jack recovered quickly and threw two silent hook punches to the goon's jaw and torso and followed with a reverse elbow strike to his throat, shattering his wind pipe. And when the guard tried to wheeze for air, Jack pressed his gun to his chest.

He pulled the trigger.

Tooth's eyes clamped her hands over her mouth to muffle her loud whimper. She heard the muffled_ pop_ from the silencer before Pitch's hitman slumped onto Jack's back. As he dropped the man silently onto the floor, Tooth inhaled heavily.

Jack's icy gaze flew up to hers before he reached over and took her wrist. He didn't give a crap when she tried to move away from his touch; he was just grateful his fighting skills were back.

He had been practicing with gang brawls and in underground fight tournaments weeks before he found Pitch's hideout. And sure, he probably knocked out more guys into a coma than he needed to but it was all worth it.

Pitch's hired help were no match for him as he yanked her down the hall.

...

As they moved quick and silent, Jack tried to map out his earlier trail in his head. He remembered that it was about here that he had passed through a small meeting room. When he saw it, he turned the knob and tried to barrel through but the two were met with a small group of Pitch's underlings coming through the other end.

Jack reeled back and immediately pushed Tooth down with his gun still up.

"Back! BACK!" he yelled and they both fell to the cold floor. As the bullets started flying, Tooth shut her eyes and crawled to hide under a table. Jack followed swiftly and when they reached it, he flipped it sideways and made a barricade to deflect the shots. As they clanked and pierced the metal wood, Jack unhooked the other gun from his belt.

Tooth clenched her teeth while Jack reached up to turn on the complink he stole from Pitch's guard. He listened to their report.

"Target has the tooth. Repeat: Target has the tooth. Second floor disturbance–" Jack whipped his head at her with a look bridging on shock and pissed.

_This chick...__She__ had the tooth?!_

When she saw him stare at her, Tooth's eyes widened. He looked like he wanted to tear her head off.

"W–" But Jack turned away from her before she could finish.

"You gotta be freaking kidding me," he muttered loudly then not wasting any more time, he clicked the safety off the second gun and crouched up over the table.

He'd deal with her after.

Jack held both guns tightly and shot the bullets with controlled accuracy. He got three of the guards in their arms and two straight through their gas masks. He would've shot for longer but when a bullet almost grazed his ear, he knelt back down behind the table, taking a hard breath to control his nerves. Tooth watched as he glared at the wall.

This guy, Jack...he was frightening.

Incredibly cute as he was, he had a lot of cold fury running behind his smooth features. She could sense it, feel it...she was almost nonexistent to him as he focused on the men across the room. When he rubbed his eye, he flexed his pale fingers on the gun's trigger, his teeth clenched as he thought of better strategies in his head.

That's when she noticed...

He had amazing teeth!

Tooth made a small fist into her now-short skirt and squeezed her eyes shut again.

'_Really?! You're thinking about __that __while all this is going on?!' _Tooth inwardly cried._ 'That's it! No more sneak offs to the Dentist school!' _

That is, if she ever made it out alive and _could_ go back to school.

When she opened them again, Jack was giving her a steely gaze. His lips were covering his teeth again and against her better judgement, Tooth was inwardly disappointed.

"When I call it, you move and I'll follow you," he barked and squeezed the gun's handle in his leather glove. "Got it?"

Tooth bit her bottom lip but nodded firmly. She decided that if she was gonna die, it might as well be in a dash for survival than waiting to get hit behind a table.

As if to agree, the table began to give way to a few bullets. "Crap!" Tooth yelled and began to move to Jack's side. He was already back over the table shooting at the remaining men. After he shot another in the chest, he turned to look at her quickly.

"Now!" and Tooth crouched up into a sprint with Jack on her heels. He was shooting behind him at the last man as they went back through the door.

"Argh!" the man cried as Jack slammed the door shut and the two bolted down the empty hallway.

Far away, they heard the voices echo in pursuit.

"Find them! The target still has the tooth! FIND HIM AND THIA!"

Tooth didn't really register what they were saying. The word **target** was still pounding in her head.

So _was_ he a criminal just like them? Did he work for Pitch on some other level the other hitmen didn't know? What if this guy was a terrorist too?!

Tooth panicked as her flats pounded the concrete and her heart painfully raced in her chest.

This is was wrong, all wrong! This guy was most likely just as bad as Pitch and was she was willingly letting him lead her away to...somewhere she didn't even know!

Tooth looked around glaringly.

She needed to find another hall. She needed to lose him! She needed to get aw–

–but Jack grabbed her around the waist and swung with her into an open broom closet.

Then he slammed the door shut, locking them in. When the darkness engulfed them both, that's when Jack advanced on her.

...

"Where is it?" Jack whispered urgently as he frantically shifted over her and began patting the sides of her dress for any pockets. "Where is it?"

Tooth immediately tried slapping his hands away as a pink blush blossomed over her cheeks.

"What are you doing? Stop it!" she squeaked uncomfortably as he kept trying to move around her trembling arms to feel her around her skirt and blouse. He kept mumbling to himself.

"They said you have it. Where is it?!"

"Let go of me!"

"We need to g–" And Tooth forcefully put a hand to his chest to push him back.

_"Jack!_"

Her touch and her voice got through to him but he reacted by grabbing her upper arms. His voice was cold and demanding as he gripped her in frustration.

"Where is it!?"

"Where is _what?!"_ Tooth hissed getting tired of the same question.

"The _tooth!_ Do you have the _tooth?!"_ he barked finally. His face was predatory.

"What the _hell _are y–"

"They said you have it," he explained and shook her in his grip to get her to understand. "So where is it? Just hand it over and I–"

"You idiot, I'm not carrying a tooth. My _name_ is Tooth!" she shouted, clearly insulted, and Jack had to immediately clamp his hand over her mouth. A cold look passed over his face as his scowl deepened and his brown eyes narrowed to slits.

"Is that some kind of sick joke!?" he seethed.

"Why on _earth_ would I kid at a time like this?!" she growled as she visibly shivered with rage. If she had feathers they'd be ruffled right about now. Tooth felt him drop a hand from one of her arms and lift a finger to point in her face. He had left icy trails all across her skin but she refused to look away from his unforgiving stare.

"Stop it," he accused her in a brisk, low tone. "They called you Thia so don't you try to l–"

"And if you did your research, you'd know my real name and that _that's_ just my public name," she interrupted hotly. "Thia is short for _Toothiana_, as in _Princess Toothiana_...I'm the heir to the throne of Punjam Hy Loo."

When he didn't immediately reply back, Tooth glared up at him through her magenta eyes and knocked his finger away from her face.

He stared dumbly at her with his jaw slack. Jack immediately lifted his other hand away from where it was resting and took a step back.

"You're a..._princess?"_

She huffed and looked away from him, feeling a bit shy caught under his intense gaze but Jack missed it completely because his face drained of more color than was already possible for his pale complexion.

His head was pounding.

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "Rise & Fall" (feat. Krewella) – Adventure Club **I think this might be Tooth and Jack's song for the story.**


	6. Busting Out Tooth

"**I'm waking up! I feel it in my bones, enough to make my systems blow. Welcome to the new age."  
**

* * *

The moment his touch left her arms, Tooth backed into the door with a shaky breath through her nose.

From the vent in the door above her, she watched how the blue light from outside shined through onto one of his brown eyes. Jack's iris lit to a bright brown and his pupil dilated from the shadows around them. But he didn't do anything for a long while as he stared at her. His body was eerily calm and steady until he clenched a fist.

"You're the tooth."

"Stop calling me _the tooth_! My _name's_ Tooth!"

Jack took a step beside her and towered over her again. When she froze and stared at him wide-eyed, he turned his head down slightly to look at her.

He narrowed his eyes.

"Prove to me you're a princess."

Her mouth made an 'O' shape.

"Wh...H-How!?"

Jack put his ungloved hand on the door and listened with his acute hearing for any sounds from outside, but his glare was still on her.

"Unless you can, I can't trust you, now can I?"

She might be a lure Pitch left to distract any person who broke in for the same reasons he did. She also might say anything Pitch wanted her to just to stay alive.

He couldn't risk it.

"Well?"

Tooth licked her cracked lips. Her heart beat loudly through her ears as she looked at the shapes in the closet.

"I'll just leave you," he threatened.

"No!" she whispered and spun to face him fully but her back hit a metal shelf behind her and it rattled. Jack's gloved hand shot out to hold it steady so no sound was made.

He trapped her between him and the wall and clenched his jaw sternly, but Tooth couldn't see it.

"Wait! I can I...just let me..." she stuttered shakily. This was the only chance for her to get out!

She feared him almost as much as Pitch Black or any of his hired assassins, but she'd seen what Jack was capable of. He'd killed several of them, _for_ _her_, and he knew how to get into the warehouse.

Which meant he also knew how to get out.

Jack spoke again.

"I know Punjam Hy Loo," he recited under his breath. "It's a tiny island nation floating in the Bay of Bengal, and has a population of under 110, 000 people. It's official language is Thai, the locals call themselves 'lulus', and it's main export is peppermint."

Tooth's mouth fell open.

"I also know they have a royal family but that's where my knowledge stops," and Jack leaned in dangerously close. "So unless you can prove to me right now that you're at least _from_ there, then your story won't have an happy ending."

Tooth's lips quivered, terrified that he knew so much about her virutally, invisible country but more so that he was seriously considering just leaving her.

Her hands shot up around her dress, patting it absentmindedly as her thoughts raced.

What did she have? What could she do? Did she even _want_ to trust someone as deadly as–

Her palm froze against her chest, she felt her necklace.

Tooth scrambled desperately for the chain and pulled it out. She lifted it to the light through the door vent and let the blue light shine on the rainbow feathers.

Tooth gulped bravely.

"T-These are the feathers of Punjam's official bird, the fiery-throated hummingbird," she whispered anxiously. "This necklace was given to me by the king before he died...he was my father."

Jack stared at the feathers heavily. After a moment, he switched his cold gaze back to hers and sighed angrily. But he didn't reject her.

Instead, he dropped his hands from the metal shelf and the door and moved around her. They were running out of time and he needed to think fast.

Tooth impulsively shifted around him, afraid he'd touch her again, but she lifted her eyebrows as he moved against the door.

"So you believe me?" she whispered with a scared and hopeful tone.

Jack glared back at her silhouette in the dark. "What?"

"It's just...no one ever takes me seriously when I say _Toothiana_."

"Fine, I'll believe you," Jack said as he turned his head back around. "But only because I knew Punjam's official bird too, and I don't think anyone can come up with a more ridiculous name at a time like this."

"Hey!" she cried and Jack went to cover her mouth again but Tooth slapped his hand away.

"Try that again and I swear to god, I'll bite next time."

Despite his usual, unfazed exterior, Jack was inwardly surprised at her attitude.

Maybe she _wasn't_ from around here, but he shushed her anyway and moved back to the door.

When a long shadow cast itself under the door and abruptly vanished, he sprung back up and gestured her toward the back wall. Tooth shuffled awkwardly as she felt him try to block her body like a shield. An air vent blew cold air down onto both of them and when the back of her arms touched the cold concrete, she heard him mutter.

"I don't know if they have heat sensors," he mumbled and she felt what was probably his hand brush her arm, his cold fingers twitching in the breeze. He then went back to the door. The stark seriousness of his actions suddenly made all the fire in Tooth's core evaporate.

Here in the dark, alone with a stranger, the wind made her take hold of reality.

"...Jack?" she whispered suddenly. Her voice became tiny.

He turned his head slightly but she didn't see it.

She was thinking about her loved ones. Tatiana, Minister Ty, and the warmth and light in her bedroom back at the palace where she and her handmaidens were all supposed to be having their slumber party right now. She wanted them.

She wanted out.

She wanted home.

"What...what do they want with me?"

Her question made Jack scrunch his eyebrows together. He frowned slightly as he glared into the darkness before he walked back over to her.

"I don't know," he answered honestly and then looked down at her silhouette sternly. "But I'll get you out."

Tooth's blood rushed through her ears.

"You will?"

And she saw his silhouette nod.

"I was going to regardless. So don't worry, your highness."

Tooth felt herself pause.

His voice suddenly became so...formal.

What happened to all that bite and all the insults he was making at her just a minute ago? Jack waited for a response before she made a weak sound of agreement, then he started to pace around the closet. It made her face grow crestfallen and more numb on the inside than the AC made her on the outside.

As usual, her title mattered more.

But at least she could calm down a bit...He hadn't known about her.

That meant he hadn't been hired or came to kidnap her after all.

All the same, loyalties were fickle. They could switch sides just like that.

As Tooth was having her internal battle, Jack was having his own. He gritted his teeth and clenched a fist as he made a mental risk assessment.

He listed the negatives against him.

There were probably more hitmen patrolling the halls by now and with the princess' lack of fighting skills it was going to be hard to defend and protect her the entire time.

As for his positives, he took into account her quick reaction time and the weapon-gun ratio of the guards – many didn't carry anything other than a rifle (minus the two pistols he took) so their precision would be less than accurate.

He snapped his fingers. For now, Jack knew that he had to abandon his original plan of finding Pitch.

As he thought about it, a brief flash of the dead ELF agent in the red uniform passed through his mind.

There was something much bigger going on than he'd originally known all those weeks ago.

But as much as he'd rather face a legion of highly trained assassins in one setting or the regular police who had him on their wanted lists, this girl...this _princess_, she needed to get out secretly.

He'd had his share of nights in cop heists and terrorist holding cells...only to break out just as easy. But this was not her war, and god knows Pitch loved warfare. Especially his own.

That's when Jack's boot hit the bottom of a shelf. He frowned and quickly dropped to it, feeling around it in the dark.

When he touched the two things that would work to his advantage, he narrowed his eyes.

They would have to do.

...

"Hey, what's that?"

When they zoomed in with their yellow goggles, they spotted the princess walking down the hall, looking alone and afraid. She was wearing a janitor's uniform, rubbing her sleeves and shuffling in its long pant legs.

"Grab her," a hitman barked and one of them stalked toward her quietly when her back was turned.

As the man walked ahead, a loud grunt was heard behind him and he spun.

His partner was gone.

With an angry snarl, he turned back to the scared and tiny princess but she was also gone. He advanced more quickly, pulling out a long whip to catch her since Pitch didn't want them to shoot at her. But when he reached the end of the hall and was about to turn his head, a pair of long legs swooped down from above and went around his neck.

Jack instantly tightened the grip of his thighs and twisted his torso. A loud _crick_ was heard and they dropped to the ground.

As they were falling, Jack ripped the cover off the air vent with him and when he fell, the cold air from the hole blew loudly. He went into a tumble roll and uncoiled smoothly into a quick run, grabbing the whip as he did.

Tooth reappeared from the hall following after him.

She made sure to keep a safe distance from Jack as he rushed ahead. His adrenaline rose, pumping through his ears. He tightened his fists.

From the right, a new pair of yellow goggles was ready to pounce him but Jack snapped the whip forward and caught him round the neck.

When the hitman was yanked forward, Jack threw an upward punch into his back then spun and rammed his elbow into the guy's exposed chest cavity. The man dropped unconscious with the whip still wrapped around him, but as Jack took a breath, six more yellow orbs were pushing through the darkness toward him.

He glared darky.

Jack pivoted his left foot and snapped his other leg out in a powerful front kick, getting one goon perfectly in the gut. He then tripped the guy and pushed him aside before he quickly followed with a round knee strike to the next guard.

Tooth by then had slowed behind him to watch the scene unfold.

The first was stumbling forward in pain while Jack was busy delivering some punches to the second. Then the third finally appeared behind all of them with his gun poised and ready, Jack bent his knees and pushed the second guard's hunched form down slightly as a shield. When the gun appeared just over his partner's shoulder, he gave Jack the chance he wanted and the brunette reached up with his gloved hand and twisted the guy's wrist.

Then, in a blur too fast for Tooth's eyes to catch, Jack spun his body and pushed the second guy to the floor and snapped his arm back to grab the third by the throat, bringing him down too. When both were on the ground, Jack pulled out his silencer and shot their goggled masks between the eyes.

"HELP!"

He then fired into the head of the first who had already managed to go around Tooth and grab hold of her hair. Tooth cried out as her hands instinctively flew up to her eyes. When she dropped them and stumbled around the body, she stared terrifyingly at Jack. Her frown deepened as she saw his shadowy silhouette click the rifle and growl angrily.

He must have run out of bullets.

Jack lifted his head. He shot a glare in her direction then chucked the gun to the floor. He still had the second one hooked behind him but he was relieved that his right hand didn't have to grip the first anymore. His fingers flexed in the cold air.

Then he ran further and she gulped loudly but boldly pushed on after him. As they ran, Tooth's skin prickled with heightened fear and alertness.

Her mouth was dry and there was a pain in her chest from all the palpitations she kept fighting. Shadows kept appearing on every wall and she wasn't sure if they were actually there or if her mind was imagining it like when she was in the bathroom at the hotel.

It also didn't help that the wind from the vents seemed to keep growing stronger and louder with every step they took. It was unnerving and she tossed her dark hair out of her face in frustration.

Suddenly they entered a larger hallway with dark windows.

With a grateful gasp for air, Tooth felt her speed increasing. And now that she could see more clearly, she watched as Jack moved way ahead of her head now, going after a guard directly in front of him. When he made a jumping high kick to the guy's head, she was impressed.

_"He is __really__ good with those legs of his,"_ Tooth said in her head, eyes wistful. But she didn't have any more time to gawk as a long shadow suddenly spread beneath her feet.

Turning, Tooth found three more men appear.

She gasped and Jack turned slightly at her voice. He gritted his teeth.

"Princess, you know how to dance?!" he barked as he rushed at her with the guard he kicked out quickly recovering and chasing after him. It looked like the two would both get trapped.

Tooth blinked repeatedly not understanding the severity of the question but she nodded anyway.

"U-Uh sure?!" she sputtered, bridging on both anger and confusion. "But just like the shuffling and spinning you do at a dance part–_AH!" _

Jack grabbed her hand and spun her so tight, her planted feet gave him the leverage he needed to lift up and perform a crescent kick to all three men behind her. Tooth was so tense, she didn't even feel him do it as she squeezed his fingers in a tight knuckle.

Then almost immediately, she felt his arms around her waist.

With red cheeks and blood rushing in her ears, she felt his cold fingers send that familiar icy and electric energy shoot through the janitor's suit and into her skin.

Jack lifted her up and using its momentum, he twisted her sideways and spun her around him like a log before he thrust her forward.

He used _her own legs and feet_ to knock the guy who'd been following him in the gut!

When the guy stumbled, Jack quickly dropped her on her feet and pushed her forward.

"Now, go under him!" he ordered and she didn't miss a beat.

Tooth made into a sprint and as Pitch's goon was scrambling to recover, she bravely dropped into a dive between his legs and slid under him on the cold tiles. She was so amazed she'd even had the balls to just do that, that she missed the guard's shocked expression through his goggles too.

But when he finally remembered to look back up to Jack, the brunette had already moved in close enough to perform a butterfly kick to his jaw. The impact broke his skull and as he fell, Jack turned back to the face the three goons.

"Go for the door!" he urged her while staring them staring down. "Open it!"

As he heard her feet stamping away, the three guards surrounded him. They looked at him predatorily but Jack wasn't scared. He raised a tense eyebrow.

He grounded his feet and a second later, he took something out of his pocket, flexed it out, and snapped the long weapon expertly across two of the men's necks.

They tried to recover but Jack pulled the long weapon back and twisted it in his grip before swooping low toward one and hitting another unexpectedly. The pain of the steel caused the goon to cry out.

This skinny jerk was fast!

Jack twirled the baton into the third guy's head and the goon dropped down unconscious. When the other two tried to advance, he hit one in the shin and threw a roundhouse kick to his leg, shattering the femur.

Finally seeing the opportunity, Jack reeled back and ran after the princess, firing a shot at the second hitman while he collapsed his baton back into its short piece and re-pocketed it.

He loved the little gadget. He'd stolen it from a police officer many months ago and although it wasn't as long as a staff, it always came in handy when he needed to take on a group of guys at once.

When Tooth reached the door, she grabbed the handle with shaky fingers and yanked it with all her might. But it didn't budge.

"Sh-Shit!" she screamed angrily.

"What is it?"

"I-It's locked!"

She felt like her arms were going to rip off from the force as she kept pulling desperately. When a dark shadow past the window of the door on the other side, she jumped away. She kicked the door angrily as Jack appeared beside her.

His forehead was creased as he looked down at her. She then moved aside and he gave the door a forceful tug. When it didn't move, he glared but didn't have the same look of distress on his face as the princess did.

He was more controlled than that.

After he fired one, more shot at the last hitman still alive behind them, Jack gritted his teeth. Then clenching his leather glove into a tight fist, he reeled back his arm and punched it through the glass window in the door.

When the glass shattered, he reached an arm through the broken window and used his hand quickly to unlock it from the other side.

When it clicked, Jack yanked it open and bolted through.

"Stay on me!" Jack ordered steadily as he holstered his gun and sprinted with Tooth on his heels.

Weird shadows flitted everywhere down the hall, messing with both their minds. Several times Jack impulsively jumped away from one wall and told Tooth to go another way, but he somehow knew they weren't really there. His instincts on alert, but his intuition was more finely tuned than the average man.

Suddenly another hitman appeared from a side hall with a gun aimed at Jack's face. His subconscious kicked in.

He knocked the gun away with cobra speed and the bullet _zinged_ as it exploded in the wall to their left. Tooth screamed and ducked her head.

"Your highness, keep going!" Jack barked and he watched as her janitor-clad body flew past him and the gunman.

Before Jack could blink, Pitch's man had wrapped his hand behind Jack's neck and was pulling him forward. As Jack's spine bent forward, the hitman reached down and pulled Jack's silencer rifle from his belt.

This hitmen was little more experienced than the others, but Jack knew that still wouldn't be enough.

By the time the hitman had taken hold of the weapon, Jack had already used the momentum of the push to spin back around. When the guard was ready to take a shot, Jack was already standing up facing him. His hands snapped up to twist the weapon expertly out of the guard's hands into his own and in an unblinking stare, Jack fired. He then spun back to the princess.

He shot his last three bullets ahead of her into the full-scale glass window at the end of the hall. When the spidery cracks appeared, he trailed after.

"Run straight through the glass window!" Jack yelled.

"WHAT?" Tooth screamed, her heart pounding with adrenaline.

She couldn't see past the darkness out of it. What if they were floors above the ground? What if was just concrete and they made ended up making a horrible, big _spl_–

"Do you trust me?!" he demanded. She was almost within two meters of the window.

"NO!" she wailed but didn't show signs of slowing down.

Jack's view of Tooth's body was suddenly blocked by another guard.

In a frustrated snarl, Jack made a quick high jump with the wall and hooked his legs around the guard's head. Then wrapping his legs around the guy's neck, he twisted them both sideways onto the floor and into a tight sleeper hold before he rolled back up.

Tooth was at the end of the hall. Jack threw his empty gun down.

"JUST DO IT!"

And with a loud whimper, she bit her lip and shut her eyes.

Tooth jumped sideways at the last second and felt her entire body shatter the glass of the window.

...

One second, it felt like she was flying in midair with all the shards floating around her. Then in the next...

Gravity lurched in her chest and she began to surge toward the ground below with the glass like sharp rain as it raced her down. As Tooth's body began to turn facing upward, she felt her stomach rise up her throat. She saw the gaping hole in the dark window and stars overhead. Then she saw Jack, whose body was diving out after hers.

In the rush of the quickening wind, Jack pushed his speed faster to reach her. As her face drew nearer, Tooth raised her hands out for him to catch her. He narrowed his brown eyes in an unnatural calm.

Jack caught hold of her janitor's sleeve and in the next split second, he pushed forward to wrap his arms around her. And a moment later, he twisted them around so he was on the bottom...just as they crashed through a glass ceiling below.

When they landed, Jack took the brunt of the fall and coughed out painfully when they landed on the piles of tarp that Pitch used to cover sections of the warehouse with.

Jack grit his teeth painfully as several shards of glass caught in his back and in his hair but he blinked out the white stars in his eyes and tried to lift his head. It wasn't _that_ bad of a fall but unlike Tooth, he'd done a lot worse.

For a moment they both lay there, their hearts threatening to burst out of their chests until Jack recovered quickly.

He heard the princess gasping in what sounded like a panic attack and he quickly lifted his gloved hand to cover her mouth, ignoring the pain and cuts in his bare arms as he did. She took deep breaths through her nose, grateful **just this once** that he put his hand over her mouth to silence her. They couldn't let anyone know where they were and thankfully the dark sky had no moon to shine down on them through the ceiling they'd just destroyed.

"Go!" he grunted softly. "Move to the left."

He'd worry about her well-being _after_ they finished getting away, and they were almost out!

Tooth nodded through wet eyes and rolled over, less painfully than Jack did. She stumbled on her shaky legs and tried to hobble down the tarp mountain as quietly as she could. When she reached the bottom, she saw why Jack had wanted her to pull such a risky move.

He was brilliant.

A mystery. A nut.

A killer maybe.

But he was...brilliant.

...

Pitch's men had no time to react on the ground level as one of their own cars suddenly appeared, driving hellishly through the warehouse lot and across the concrete.

When they saw who was driving, they immediately let loose a barrage of flying bullets and weapons at their disposal.

At the same time, Pitch was watching through several security cams. His yellow eyes glared wildly at the speeding getaway car.

"Shut down the gate," he ordered and his hired hitman pressed his complink to send the order to the gate guards. Meanwhile, Jack was hearing the exact same report through his own stolen Bluetooth.

"Pitch wants that main gate shut NOW. Repeat: Seal the main gate. Do not let the target get away with the tooth."

Jack shifted the gear and hit the gas as Tooth wiped her cheeks and rubbed it on the janitor outfit. A loud alarm started going off around the lot and she watched as red lights began to flash far ahead. It reminded her terribly of the alarms that went off in the hotel when she was kidnapped.

But when she saw where Jack drive towards, she snapped her head at him wildly.

"No, _NO!_" she cried shaking her head. She pointed through the dashboard. "You _can't_ make that!"

Jack's jaw was set tightly as he narrowed his brown eyes, dead focused on the closing steel gate as it loomed far ahead.

"Not if I don't hit 105 km/h in 3.2 seconds, I won't," he bit out then downshifted quickly and hit the brake to spin the silver car around a tight corner before hitting the accelerator. They hit several of Pitch's men standing idle in the center of the path to shoot him but only because the hitmen didn't anticipate Jack's control of the car's speed to come so fast.

Tooth cried out in distress.

"We won't make it. We won't! There's no way you can hit that in a ca–"

"Do I tell you how to do your job?" he barked and her mouth snapped shut. _"Don't tell me how to do mine."_

And with a tight fist, he pushed the gear shift into one final notch and floored the accelerator. The car made a screeching sound as its back tires burned rubber then it shot forward like a bullet.

Tooth refused to squeeze her eyes shut but she couldn't see through the glass properly anyway since the car was moving so fast. She held onto her passenger seat as Jack concentrated on nothing but his natural fire to drive. His senses were hypersensitive as his gloved hand gripped the steering wheel.

The gate was now closer than before as Jack crossed fifty meters in 4 seconds. And when the gate came down as they finally got to it, Tooth shrunk in her seat and couldn't do it.

She squeezed her eyes shut.

She missed how they made a perfect cut between the gate and its tiny opening. And before any of Pitch's men could stop them, the car was already gunning down the beaten dirt path and away from the warehouse.

...

The guard dropped his hand away from his complink, he stared at Pitch's back through the yellow goggles of his black gas mask.

"Shall we go in pursuit of them?" the hitman asked Pitch. "I can have several units to depart in minutes."

But the taller man just continued to glare out onto the now dark and silent warehouse lot. He watched the shadows flicker and dance in each cam.

He'd almost started to miss the bleak and quiet since the uninvited guest ruined it by killing off 32% of his men. But what a wonderful ruining the princess' dark-clad daredevil had made. He'd have to recruit a man like that one day soon.

"No matter," finally was Pitch's blunt reply. "She will come back, so there is no use in prolonging the inevitable. But perhaps later, if the men get antsy."

The hitman nodded as he let Pitch walk around him.

"And besides," Pitch added. "She was only the extra prize remember? We can still do more than enough with what we have for the time being. Now tell the boys downstairs that they can begin to start their tests if they so wish."

And he gave the guards a twisted smile.

"We still have other work to do, gentleman."

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "Radioactive" – Imagine Dragons**  
**


	7. The Media Announcement

**T**eensophie-draws, I'm throwing this girl some Easter eggs. Lol my friend showed me the tag this fic has on tumblr and I loved the doodles she sketched (may I use one as a cover art pretty please?). Big smiles to Xanthera too. (: Okay so now you all met 'badass' Jack (your reviews are great lol) and don't worry, Tooth will have asses to kick too. But for now I can _finally_ move into real grit of this story! So here we go.

* * *

_Urban slums outside Ho Chi Minh City, 2:49 am_

A car drove until it reached a new city and pulled up to a curb on a rundown clubbing district. The second the driver killed the engine, Tooth threw her door open and stumbled out.

Jack stepped out more gracefully and scanned the bustling street but all he saw were a couple guys walking drunk across the sidewalk. When some girls eyed him as they clicked in their heels towards a nearby club, he turned and shut the door. He gave the princess a quick glance before he walked around to the back of the car.

"Let's rest okay?" he said and Tooth nodded. She wiped a hand across her mouth and stared at the open night sky.

Tooth _hated_ enclosed spaces. She loved the feeling of wide, open spaces and having enough air to fill her lungs so when she saw the stars and felt the cool breeze in her face, she nearly cried. She never wanted to be kidnapped again.

Tooth flit her eyes around the district and took in the signs and the bright lights. The signs were not in English but she understood them just fine.

They were Vietnamese logos.

Tooth frowned. Pitch's men really _had_ driven for a while after they kidnapped her. Twelve hours west in fact.

She was in an entirely different country!

It made sense though...she'd only been tied up in that room for about twelve hours and still a full day had passed.

If this mysterious guy hadn't shown up, she'd probably still be there...or worse.

Tooth turned to Jack, heart racing, and saw him bent low beneath the car. When he pulled back up, a tiny piece of metal was twirling in his gloved hand. He looked down at it petulantly.

"W-What is that?"

He gripped it tightly before he dropped it on the cement and smashed it with the heel of his boot.

"Nothing you need to concern yourself with." He then went to open the back door of the car.

Tooth blinked her cerise-colored eyes. Jack was really a guy of few words.

As he bent low under the passenger seat, Jack took out his knife and cut a hole in the leather and pulled out another piece of metal. Coming out, he dropped it on the ground with the ear complink he stole and destroyed them too.

When the blinking red light died, he flexed his pale fingers and ran them through his hair. Tooth eyed him nervously.

"A tracker?"

Jack looked down at her briefly before he reached down to scoop up the pieces and dump them in a nearby drainage hole.

"Three actually. Pitch's dealers don't pay as much attention to detail as I do."

She nodded numbly and watched him return. Jack suddenly pulled out a lighter and sparked a flame.

"What are yo–" she started but saw something in his other hand.

When he lit the small bag of grey-purplish powder, he tossed it into the backseat of the car and slammed the door.

A second later, the dried mixture made a small explosion and the car began to smoke with purplish clouds. When a little fire started, Jack then turned to Tooth and beckoned her with a finger to follow him.

"Hey!"

He shouted to a group of drunk club hoppers hanging out nearby. They turned to look at him.

Jack threw a thumb at the car not caring if they understood a word he said.

"Check out the fire!"

But when they saw it, they cheered and grabbed nearby objects on the street until soon, most of the people were beating the car to a bloodied pulp in drunk happiness.

Tooth's jaw dropped but when she turned to look back up at Jack, he was already walking past their abandoned table...holding a wallet he'd somehow managed to fish from one of their bags.

His face was staring down the street ahead, serious as always.

...

They walked for a while and Tooth frowned. She tried to keep up with his longer strides but the janitor pants tangled around her ankles. Jack was looking through the wallet, absentmindedly scanning the cards and counting the bills inside.

She felt odd.

He didn't grab her or yank her along like he'd done earlier, barking _'Stay princess!' _here and _'Go princess!' _there. The guy practically harassed her all night with his tugging. yet now it looked like Jack didn't give a crap about her. He didn't even look back once to make sure she was even still following.

He was cold. That or bipolar...But Tooth couldn't decide which since Jack so far wasn't very emotional and he was all business.

Still, it didn't stop her from staring at his back as he walked.

Jack wore a black turtleneck and black fitted trousers that were cinched at the cuff to fit into his black combat boots. A classic full-bodied spy outfit if there ever was, but he didn't look at all uncomfortable in the nightly southeast asian heat like she was. She bit her lip.

He also was taller than she thought. But then again, that's what the darkness does to you. It twists the image.

It dims down one's appearances.

Which meant Jack wasn't just cute.

He was good-looking, like, _really_ good-looking. To her anyway.

She couldn't stop her magenta eyes from staring at the way his shoulders sauntered as he walked confidently down the sidewalk. He looked like he was on a mission...okay, so maybe he _was_ but Tooth couldn't help it. She hadn't been around a guy with this much self-assurance before, even when his steps were virtually catlike.

Jack was well-built from what the black outfit could outline. His lean body was solid and more filled out from the torso up but she already knew that all the power came from his legs. When he rubbed his eye with his gloved hand, she instantly drifted up to his brown locks and was interested in the tiny white strands again. He kept rubbing the thumb of his ungloved hand over his knuckles and flexing them in the wind. Nervous twitch maybe?

Tooth froze mid-step.

Jack's boots kept trudging on ahead but she glared at his feet.

She then quickly mimicked his footsteps...but walked backwards.

Tooth walked as silent as she could but the second she hit the open alleyway they just passed, she dove in!

...

Tooth moved quickly, crouching as she slinked under the shadow of Ho Chi's slum homes. When she was sure there was enough distance, she ran for it.

Tooth dodged some garbage and when a hungry cat walked by and looked her in the face, she brought a finger to her lips. It meowed anyway.

'_Stupid cat!'_ she yelled in her head and moved around it._ 'Crap! OH CRAP!'_

Ahead of her was a street that looked like it headed into a neighbourhood – and there were people!

Finally! Civilization and normal, (relatively) safe people she could run to for help!

Tooth was almost there!

She needed to get to them, she needed to despite how hard it was to run in her baggy janitor's unifor–

–Jack grabbed her shoulder out of nowhere and spun her around.

"Oh my god!" she screamed. "Hel–" Her voice caught her throat.

He was livid against the shadows. Cold and unforgiving.

"Where the_ hell _are you going?"

Terrified and running on her adrenaline, Tooth eyed his hand on her shoulder. Abruptly, she snapped her hands up and gripped his wrist.

_'Come, on! Do it like they taught you!'_ Tooth cried in her head and thought about her bodyguards. She bent his hand and deftly twisted it sideways. But Jack twisted himself out of it easily.

Her heart beat wildly.

Jack then moved his arm forward to catch hers but Tooth spotted it.

* * *

"_Don't forget, princess. You must throw a punch here, like so."_

* * *

Tooth tried to remember the stance and made a small fist. She threw a punch and hoped to deflect his glove at his joint, but Jack's other hand easily caught her wrist and lifted it over her head. He stepped behind her as he held it and bent her elbow down in front of her so he could hug her chin in the crook of his own. She jerked wildly.

Jack gripped her in a semi-headlock from behind. Tooth tried to part his arms like they taught her but Jack's unnatural upper body strength was like a bear trap! She jumped on her small feet and cried out angrily but he just plopped her back down.

"L-Let me go, you crazy–"

"Do you not remember how many men I just killed to save your ass?" he muttered darkly. "You can't fight me."

"I-I don't care! I can try!"

She tried to stamp on his foot, but Jack moved it aside swiftly. Tooth gritted her teeth.

"If you kill me, I swear, I'll make sure my spirit follows you to hell and back!" she spat.

"And then what?" he remarked. "What about your family? Your kingdom?"

"As soon as they find Pitch at that warehouse, then I'll make sure to leave a trail on you."

Jack scoffed.

"Pitch isn't there anymore."

"You would know," Tooth quipped and tried to elbow and knock him in the jaw at the same time. She only managed to do the second but still he didn't let go.

Instead, he tightened his hold around her and looked at her head of hair. Tooth panicked but refused to show fear. She looked up ahead of her angrily and kept pulling.

"I'm _serious_," Jack snarled. "Look, you only know him based on the facts you learnt in a classroom and what the media can scrounge up. But you forget that _I_ know him."

Jack's voice dropped.

"Pitch is a shadow," he breathed low, dark and husky like the way Tooth imagined serial killers to behave. "He comes and goes like a devil...Why do you think he's never been caught for years?"

Tooth breathed heavily against his bicep, its toned muscles running taut under her chin. Her fingers grew weaker the more she tried to dig her fingers into his black sleeve but Jack barely paid attention to it.

"So until I can figure out what to do with you, _you don't leave_...Not unless you want your head inside one of Pitch's bags again."

The second he loosened his grip, Tooth threw his arms apart and moved away. Jack crossed his arms and glared at her.

She spun to face him, cheeks flushed red and heart aching under her ribcage. Against her better judgement she found herself staring at his toned arms under his sleeves until she shook her head. Her anxiety was sky rocketing and his good-spy-bad-spy routine was frustrating to the point of nausea.

"If you don't even know what to do with me, then why put up with me?!" Tooth argued. She tried to push her hair behind one ear but its thickness made it flop back against her cheek and she threw her hands up, annoyed and frazzled.

"Send me home, drop me at a police station, leave me with a nice Vietnamese family who'll _probably_ want to set me up with their oldest son! W-Why do you bother when I only slow you down?!"

Jack blinked at the 'set-me-up-with-their-son' comment before he twisted his face.

"Because you matter to Pitch. And Pitch matters to me."

"You haven't even told me your full name! It's just what, _'Jack'_?" she cringed. "And w-what are you? Some sort of spy? Or a...H-How can I even trust you?!"

A dark look passed across Jack's brown eyes and he gritted his teeth.

_'Those damn teeth again!'_ her head cried and Tooth snapped and let loose a string of curse words mixing from Thai to English...but Jack couldn't handle it anymore.

"Because you'll be dead if you _don't._"

When she turned back to him, he was standing in front of her with a deep look of tension. His weight was resting on one foot and he raised a finger in Tooth's face.

"And don't you _ever_ try to pull a gunner on me," he threatened. "You won't make it out of my sight for two minutes, let alone fight me."

Then he said nothing more, daring her to challenge his authority over her.

Tooth's mouth fell open.

The seconds ticked by painfully.

Then she gave him an openly distressed look before she stomped off. Tooth whizzed past the closed shops with her angry gaze.

Jack was lethal. He was cold. He was dangerous. His reflexes were so hypersensitive that he had her in that terrifying grip in under four seconds!

But oh, he was _so_ right, and somehow that pissed Tooth off more than it scared her.

She didn't know why! Tooth knew she should've been screaming bloody murder the second they reached the city and tried harder to get away. But Jack somehow made her feel like she needed to stand her ground and fight him instead.

His energy provoked her...yet look how well THAT turned out.

Tooth couldn't handle the frustration. She had just made herself look ridiculous!

"Don't turn your back on me, _princess,_" he spit icily but with her adrenaline still pumping she shook her head, dark hair flying wildly.

"Ooh, I should've turned my back on YOU _hours _ago!"

Tooth continued to mutter to herself as she passed more shops with him trailing behind her.

"Should've rolled out of the car when I had the chance," she grumbled and Jack, thanks to his acute hearing, gave her the most exhausted and annoyed look.

A couple seconds past as they re-entered the rundown shopping district. Neither said a word as Tooth scampered on ahead with Jack watching her like a hawk. But then she slowed suddenly and came to a stop.

Tooth caught her reflection in a glass window.

She grimaced at the sight and quickly licked the side of her hand. Then with a bitter frown, she rubbed it onto her eyelids to wipe away the smudged pink eyeshadow - preening like a bird or cat. When she also saw how messy her hair was, Tooth reached up to the back of her head and took out the only jeweled pin still left in her hair. She then combed through the knots and twisted her blonde streak into her dark hair until it was virtually invisible and used the pin to hold it down. When she was finished, her eyes caught Jack's gaze in the reflection and realized he'd been watching her.

Jack was actually frowning softly.

"You all right?" he asked in a hard tone. "I never asked or checked if you were hurt yet."

Tooth blinked and turned slowly to face him. How was he okay with threatening her one second then being concerned the next?

Her forehead creased worriedly. But she decided to answer him just in case.

"Yeah, I'm...I'm okay."

She waited for his face to change but he still gave her this bruised look, and Tooth found that despite all the hell he'd put her through, her natural tendency to make others feel better slipped through.

For the first time since they met, she tried to give him a tiny smile.

Jack didn't return it.

Yeah, he was most likely bipolar.

Tooth instantly dropped it and bitterly walked away first. This time _he_ followed _her._

...

Jack held the door open for Tooth and the princess stepped into the diner in an almost dizzy state.

No one was inside except for the cashier who was wiping down the front counter. He threw them a bored glance and turned around to keep cleaning. He didn't recognize the Princess of Punjam, even with her oversized body suit on. Both were grateful...Jack more so than Tooth.

Jack relaxed somewhat and the two took a seat in an empty booth. Tooth played with her fingers nervously as she looked around the shop. She didn't look up once to stare Jack in the face.

How was she going to call Prime Minister Ty all the way from Vietnam?! God knows what was happening back at the hotel after Pitch's cute brown haired henchman started shooting up the gala.

Tooth then secretly flicked her eyes up at Jack as he was surveying the restaurant. He was rubbing his eye with his fist again.

_'Tooth, that's the last time you trust with a cute guy with brown hair,' _she bitterly thought and squirmed in her seat.

Jack saw her move and his heavy gaze was back on her. In the light of diner, he realized that her skin was more golden than brown and when she blinked, he raised an eyebrow just as she looked up. Tooth glared at him as his gaze curiously flitted around her magenta irises.

"Do you ever smile?" she spat.

At the question, Jack's face defaulted back into a cold gaze. Tooth immediately let up and frowned.

But as she was about to open her mouth, something caught her gaze. She watched it for a few seconds before it registered. Then her eyes widened.

Jack's eyebrows rose in alert as she clambered out of the booth.

Tooth took a few steps toward the television hanging up in the corner for all the customers to see. It was a breaking news report with her country's name ticked across the red banner. The camera was filming the mess at the conference hall in the Bangkok hotel while a reporter's voice was retelling the events of the shooting and her disappearance.

Jack turned to the cashier who was leaning over the serving counter.

"Hey could you turn that up?" he asked and the man nodded and grabbed the remote to jab the volume button before going back to work uninterested. Jack turned back around to watch the screen.

"Prime Minister Ty," Tooth mumbled under her breath as the news report showed him recounting his plan of action to the public. Seeing his familiar (distraught) face made a large wave of homesickness wash over her.

"What's going..." she paused and listened.

"_With the disappearance of the princess and her handmaiden, our country must now take immediate security measures to protect the rest of the council."_

Her heart skipped. Tooth didn't know why at first and her hands twitched.

Then she realized.

_Disappearance__...and her handmaiden..._

The words sunk in.

Tooth nearly choked and her hand flew to cover her mouth.

"Tat?" she whispered shakily. "_Tat?_ No...no no no..no!"

Jack's forehead creased and he got up as he watched Tatiana's missing picture show on screen.

"Her eyes are purple," he mumbled and looked at Tooth. A suspicious gaze passed briefly through his eyes before it disappeared.

They both looked so much alike.

_"..security and our country's guard posts are doing everything they can to find the both of them.  
We have many strong leads and international law enforcement has been called. But..."_

Mr. Bangkot deeply frowned into the podium before he looked at the camera again.

_"But if the Princess or her captors are hearing this message, please, return her to her people.  
__Please, return Princess Thia and her handmaiden, they are good girls and d–"__  
_

Tooth abruptly turned and left of the shop. Once outside, she ran both hands through her hair.

"Damnit no! NO!" she cried angrily and Tooth kicked a nearby trashcan in frustration. "Tatiana! He_ took_ her! H-How?...Why?!_"_

Jack appeared at her side and looked down at her grimly. His dark eyebrows were knitted together.

"Why would Pitch take her?" he whispered too, trying to make sense of what was going on.

Tooth's eyes were still glued to the tv screen through the window and shook her head still disbelieving.

"I should've never asked her to come with me," she said softly so no one could else hear. "It's all my fault..._my little Baby Tooth_."

Jack blinked widely before he narrowed his gaze back on her.

"Wait, what did you call her?"

"Baby Tooth," she responded sadly. "It's a name me and the other handmaidens gave her becau–"

She stopped.

The icy chill ran down to her core. It almost stopped her heart.

Tooth's mouth fell open with a cold realization. Jack took a step closer to her.

"Who else knew that?" he asked urgently and as he towered over her shaking form.

"E-everyone," she replied. "Everyone around the island called her Baby Tooth when we were together."

Jack turned away with a dark look on his face. He wanted to smack his head against the wall.

"She was the tooth," he spat coldly.

"No but I...I-If I was," she continued for him. "Then she–"

"You both were," he stopped her.

Tooth's lips quivered.

"But you didn't know?" Jack twisted his head back to hers. "Why _her too?_"

"I-I don't...I don't know," Tooth mumbled and shook her head. "I don't! I-I DON'T know!"

She couldn't finish as a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach grew. But it wasn't like anyone had known this kind of danger was going to happen! _Yes,_ Tat and Tooth looked alike and _sure_, they shared the same streak of blonde hair, and _okay_ so everyone back home called her Baby Tooth because of it...but did they really want her as much as the princess? And why?

_WHY._

Why was Princess Thia, a virtually unimportant girl on the global map, now so special? Why was her handmaiden?! She fisted a hand into the janitor suit.

And why didn't she know Baby Tooth was trapped in the warehouse too? They could've escaped together!

She looked over at Jack and frowned sadly. He looked like he was beating himself for not being in two places at once. She couldn't stop herself from wanting to reach over and touch his arm but when she tried, he flinched out her touch and moved away. She didn't even feel hurt by it, feeling too upset by what had just occurred.

He steeled himself instantly and clenched his jaw.

"If they wanted her, then this is more than just a simple royal kidnapping," Jack muttered darkly as he stared at the floor. He suddenly lifted his head and looked at Tooth.

"Why do you both have such 'different' eyes?" he asked and Tooth bit her lip at his bristly exterior.

"It's one of the reasons why she was chosen to be my handmaiden," she shrugged heavily. "The others have purple eyes too. It's a security protocol for me. But I..."

Tooth immediately turned her head away from him after the words left her mouth.

She ran a hand across her cheek and Jack noticed the tear that slipped out.

"Why is this all happening?" she mumbled behind her fist. "Oh my god, Tat..." She clenched her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut to stop the rest from leaking out.

_Princesses don't cry._

Jack stared into her eyes, catching the flecks of purple that mixed with the pink.

When he took a step forward, Tooth impulsively backed away.

"If Pitch took her, then there's no telling when he'll come back for you."

There was tension in Jack's strong jaw.

"You're not safe anywhere," he said firmly. "Not your palace, not with the police, not even with international security...So you'll stick with me."

What was he implying? She'd have to...to follow _him?_ But he was...he was–

"They took your handmaiden for a reason," he continued after seeing her face twist. "And no regular cop or bodyguard can take on Pitch or his men. Or do you need another example?"

When he turned his head back to the screen, they both saw the wreckage and ambulance lights still at the hotel.

Tooth gulped painfully and looked up at him with a sad frown.

"Don't say that, Jack" she mumbled forlornly but she couldn't help the energy flickering in her chest at the thought of someone like him protecting her. It terrified her too. "They probably already have my security council sending out hundreds in the field to look for me."

"Yeah, and Pitch still wants you too...but neither's gonna find you and we're going after Pitch instead."

Tooth felt the color in her face drain. She didn't like the sound of that.

"W-Why?"

Jack turned to face her.

"Because I'm going protect you."

Tooth didn't shrink away but she furrowed her eyebrows in concern.

"Why are you so hell bent on getting to Pitch?"

Jack didn't say anything at first. He thought about Pitch's eyes and the broken memories that kept resurfacing from some unknown past he still had yet to remember.

Tooth didn't miss the haunted look that passed over Jack's creased features as he moved around her.

"I have my reasons."

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "Regret" – Blue Stahli**  
**


	8. When Jack's Truth Comes Out

Hey guys after this, I won't be posting for a bit due to my exam period starting. All I want to do every day is continue writing this but lol it's distracting me from my studies! But don't worry I'll come back around mid-April. (: Again and as always thanks for reading PG. I'm having so much fun writing this!

* * *

_Ho Chi Minh City slums,_ _3:29am_

A black boot splashed in a rooftop puddle before the shadowy figure vanished behind a cover of homes.

When it reappeared, it was freerunning four roofs away , silent and fluid like a ghost. The pants didn't trip the person or rustle around their boots because it was expertly designed to fit in and around their longs legs.

The figure gave a quick burst of speed at the end of the fifth house then flipped over the ledge.

As they were falling, a familiar steel bar came into view and they caught it in a tight grip. Then swinging for momentum, the figure let go, and landed on the second floor enclave of a rundown apartment's patio.

Not a sound was made as the soles hit the concrete.

Jack smirked. For kicks, he did a silent cat vault over the giant electrical generator box. When he landed on the other side he rolled his shoulders and kept on walking until he reached what he was looking for.

Glancing around quickly, Jack lifted a small column of concrete away from a broken part of the building's wall and was slightly relieved when he saw his gear still there. He didn't risk bringing anything that he essentially needed when he went did break-ins, especially when it came to criminals like Pitch Black.

Jack grabbed for his stolen police duty belt and latched it on around his waist.

Then after checking that everything was still there, Jack pulled out his small black, backpack hidden deeper inside the large crack and opened it. He threw his baton and his only glove in, but he glared as he stared down at the rest of the contents.

_"Shit."_

He shouldn't have ditched the two guns that he'd used back at Pitch's warehouse.

If Pitch was as smart as Jack knew, he might sample all the weapons left at the scenes for DNA prints. He was usually so careful not to leave traces, to stay invisible. This was his first mistake in so long...and it had to be with Pitch Black!

But what went wrong?

Jack had to stop himself from rolling his eyes.

What the hell kind of question was that? Of course he knew.

_Princess Thia._

He realised all his spy skills practically went out the window as he rewound the memory. He had been messy. His kills were obvious and their escape was everything _but_ stealthy. But he decided it was partially her fault with her loud mouth and all her hysteria.

Jack clenched his jaw and zipped the black bag shut.

The girl wasn't easy.

Then after he slung the bag over his shoulder, Jack stared up at the stars. The nightly breeze caressed his skin and blew into his hair.

Jack huffed softly.

And now he had to go back to her again.

...

"GOSH!"

When Jack appeared next to Tooth she nearly went into cardiac arrest.

She had ran about three blocks away from where he had left her but she was loud when she panted and he caught up to her easy. He didn't comment and walked around her, but she was already turning on him, wide eyes impossibly wider and with a hand on her chest.

_"Don't do that!"_

"It's three in the morning," he muttered. "Be quiet."

After a couple more breaths she walked beside him, a frown on her face.

"Where were you? You threaten me not to run off but the second I turn, you vanish."

"I was testing you," he lied. "And you failed."

But he knew she was smart.

He could feel her gaze on his newly-acquired backpack and black duty belt.

Thankfully the princess didn't comment on it.

...

To Jack's relief, they stumbled upon the only internet cafe open twenty-hours, two blocks ahead.

No one was inside except for two guys on their laptops and the sleepy cashier who was dozing at the counter. When the older man eyed their clothes funny, Jack shot him a cold glare and he instantly snapped up and pretended he hadn't been looking. Jack missed Tooth's impressed (yet nervous) glance as he paid with the money he stole from the drunk clubgoers who destroyed Pitch's car for him.

They then found two computers in the farthest corner and Tooth immediately sighed at the sight of technology.

_'Wow I'm pathetic,'_ she thought in her head as she and Jack sat down. When she booted up the internet browser, Tooth went to open her Hotmail but Jack noticed.

He shot his hand out to cover hers on the mouse.

"Don't open it."

"Why not?"

"Pitch is an industrial espionage terrorist. He uses a special unit of hackers to electronically steal encrypted information from servers and corporate databases. If he's still looking for you, he–"

"–might check to see if I activate my account...Right," she slowly finished for him and Jack nodded. He heard her huff but she closed the login page.

_'Wow, he's smart,'_ Tooth mentally noted and decided to check other sites instead that didn't require her opening up personal info.

As she did, Jack was busy with his own computer, quickly opening to some travel agencies and the page for the Tan Son Nhat International Airport.

Tooth peeked over and saw him scrolling through plane departure times from Vietnam.

"What ya looking at?"

He saw her lean over and tilt her head. Jack suddenly felt like they were two students studying late at night in a library.

But it had been a long time since he'd finished school.

Jack's brown eyes flit across the page tirelessly, his fingers flying.

"I heard Pitch talking about a plane leaving from here...A man they were tracking to Moscow on flight 7."

Tooth scrunched her eyebrows together thoughtfully.

* * *

_"...7...it's sooner gone than..."_

_"That plane...I NEED...! And if it is NOT delivered—"_

* * *

She frowned.

"I think I heard him mention it too," she mumbled to herself before she talked again to him. "Do you...do you think my handmaiden will be on that flight?"

Jack stopped typing and turned to face fully her. His face was grim.

"Princess, Pitch wanted her so she's probably with him, not his men."

He watched her bite her lower lip, round pink-hue eyes blinking tiredly his way before she looked down. He bit the inside of his cheek but turned back to the screen.

What more could he say? Jack didn't want to talk to begin with.

The minutes passed in silence as the two avoided each other's presence. Then suddenly Jack bent down and opened his backpack. He addressed Tooth as he was looking for his credentials.

"I found a number 7 non-stop from here to Moscow. That's gotta be the one Pitch wanted."

Tooth eyed the screen briefly, her heart suddenly racing in her chest.

"When does it leave?"

"Seven hours from now. Ten thirty-five in the morning."

He saw her nod out of the corner of his eye and swivel in her chair back to her computer.

With his keen eye, he noted how her arms tensed and her hand gripped the chair.

She wasn't ready for this.

But he couldn't blame her – what normal person would?

They were following a man who was following _another_ man into unknown territory. Shit was going to go down.

As Jack booked whatever two tickets they had left for the flight, Tooth tried to distract herself with her internet surfing.

She wasn't thrilled about the idea of taking a plane somewhere _other_ than home but if staying alive and getting Tatiana back was only possible with him then she'd take it! She didn't want to jeopardize any other 'sisters' too by running home in hysterics, otherwise Pitch would just send his goons after her again.

Tooth pulled up the homepage of Punjam's national newspaper, _'_The Hummingbird_'_. It told her everything she needed to know about what was going on her island when she was at school in the States and it always came in handy because it mentioned people in the palace too.

But she didn't have to search long for any information on the palace this time. It was the first story blown up on the homepage.

_(Thai)_

_BELOVED PRINCESS TOOTHIANA KIDNAPPED FROM BANGKOK HOTEL_

She bit her lip as she scrolled down and read the article.

"_Just twelve hours ago, the locals discovered from royal officials that Her Royal Highness The Princess Toothiana and handmaiden Tatiana (commonly known as Baby Tooth) were both taken during a development gala which the Princess and our Prime Minister, PM Ty Bangkot, were invited to attend."_

"_Princess Toothiana was taken at approximately 10:53pm after shooting went off in the middle of the dance portion of the party. Her handmaiden Tatiana was discovered to have been missing around the same time from where she was staying up in the hotel's fifth floor ensuite. Her royal guard was found dead at the scene."_

* * *

"_I'll be upstairs waiting for you!...Remember I want that list."_

* * *

Tooth almost couldn't continue reading but she took a shaky breath and kept rolling the mouse wheel. She glared back the sting in her eyes.

"_The following immediate action was declared by our Prince Regent and the Princess' uncle, Tanvir Hypunjam, following the Princess' disappearance:  
'After an emergency decision of the royal council advisories, is as prescribed, the rest of the princess' handmaidens are being split up and will remain in unknown locations for an indeterminate amount of time until further investigation has been made as to find those responsible._'

"_As well, the Princess' private tutor and caregiver since her young age, Mr. S Sanderson, left Punjam Hy Loo just hours ago and is now heading for Massachusetts, United States to inform the administration at Fay University, the Princess' school, of her disappearance."_

"_The country has taken a moment of silence for our beloved princess and her handmaiden. Everyone here prays for her security and remains confident that the Princess will return."_

"What is it saying?"

Jack didn't react when Tooth jumped in her chair at his abrupt question.

He'd finished booking the flight about a minute ago and was going to mention it to her until he saw her face. Whatever she was reading in the Thai script was making her emotions dance wildly across her face.

Tooth gulped and narrowed her eyes, fighting the wetness down.

"It's from Punjam's national newspaper...All my handmaidens are going into hiding, and my nanny left for States."

Jack's brown eyes widened briefly.

"Security protocol?"

"It must be...with Tatiana gone, the rest are in jeopardy if Pitch isn't done."

Jack heard the crack in her voice and looked at her.

The princess' eyes were glued to the screen but he could tell she wasn't really seeing anything. Jack watched her open and close her mouth, like she wanted to say something but wasn't sure if she could.

His brows knitted together.

"Hey," he said softly and she turned to meet his steady gaze. He nodded. "Look at me."

A moment passed until her face softened slightly.

Then Tooth spoke.

"When I was little, I had eight younger girls chosen to look after me. They were specifically picked for their eyes, hair, and face to stand in as my double and because we looked so much alike, most people mistook us for being all related, but I'm an only child," she explained and closed her eyes. "It was considered the highest honor for them since I don't...look like most girls."

Jack said nothing and watched as she looked down at the keyboard. Her hand fisted into the janitor suit.

"But I'm nobody! People bump into me in the halls at school and I...I never, _never _thought a day would come like this when we'd actually have to..." she then turned to face him.

"Until day, only the people of Punjam Hy Loo knew about my handmaidens. They were kept secret, and Tatiana _always_ hid whenever she had to accompany me overseas, so I _don't _know how Pitch knew."

When she finished, Jack saw her bite her lower lip and put her head in her hands.

To confirm her words, he realised the newspaper homepage didn't have any pictures of Tooth or her handmaidens – he only remembered the one on the tv bulletin.

He gave the cafe a quick look over but no one was paying attention them. Jack's brown eyes moved back to Tooth.

"Are your palace guards with them?" he asked.

She looked back up bravely. "Only the best."

"So don't stress yourself," he said in a low voice to calm her subconscious. "They're being looked after. And it's better that they aren't all together. If this goes beyond just you and potentially involves them, they're better off disappearing into the night separately."

Tooth nodded weakly.

"Yeah, you're right," she mumbled and tried to push her hair behind one ear. Jack stuck his gaze on her for a few more seconds before he nudged his head at her computer.

Tooth understood and sighed heavily. Then she went back to internet surfing.

"I hope they're all okay..." he heard her whisper to herself.

Jack turned back to his computer. When he was sure that she was too busy poring over her own stuff to sneak at his (and that the rest of the cafe wasn't either), he narrowed his eyes and opened a search engine.

In it, he typed his full name.

After he filtered through all the ridiculous holiday crap, folklore, pictures, and movie links, he found something he'd hoped not to pop up.

Biting his lower lip, Jack opened a link to the national French inquirer. On it was all the national news the French government was busy handling, both federal and municipal.

In the security section (which took up a large section of the page) there was his name.

He pulled to control his breathing as he translated the French article, about three weeks old.

_WANTED FUGITIVE SEEN AT GARE DU NORD STATION, STILL AT LARGE_

_The international fugitive who goes by the name 'Jack Frost' was captured on camera leaving the Gare du Nord (The North Gate) terminal late this morning. He was seen heading east across the platform before disappearing in the morning crowd. Police have no clues as to where his destination could lead but they suspect he traveled east with the Eurostar to London._

_A wave of panic passed through the crowd when locals claimed he had apprehended a man on the subway fifteen minutes after it went underground __but __Frost has not been found since and his whereabouts remain unknown. He was not seen on the train when it reached its next stop._

_Frost is wanted in connection for past alleged crimes associated with multiple criminal organizations and wanted British terrorist known only as 'Pitch Black'. Frost escaped the Folsom State Prison in California eight months ago where he was serving a lengthy sentence for the murder of three American federal agents, close to one year ago this month._

Jack's pale fingers gripped the mouse so tight, it cracked slightly.

_International law enforcement has been warned not to arrest Frost but to kill him on site as he has been listed as a wanted fugitive by multiple governments ranging from Asia, to Europe, and west in the United States._

There was an email address and a helpline that French citizens could call if they spotted him but Jack didn't read the rest.

His heart was actually beating a little faster than he could control and he felt dread creep into his stomach.

They had no picture of him but still...

Everyone was still hunting him.

With another quick glance to the princess and around the cafe, Jack then quickly typed in an encrypted code into the server.

His browser was quickly rerouted to a page that only international law enforcement and federal agents were allowed to see. His senses heightened, Jack flew his brown eyes across the screen, drinking in the new information on global crimes and occurrences. Pitch's name came up on several corporate infiltrations, and warfare smuggling was apparent at every click.

Then he glared when his cursor passed over the international wanted list. Clenching his jaw softly, he risked a look and pressed the button.

Names and faces he knew (and met) blew up the page.

The list was virtually endless, showing men and the occasional women who were wanted by every spy agency and government in the world. They did everything from genocide, drug smuggling, and human trafficking, to white-collar crime, murder, and illegal intelligence work.

They were sick and they were dangerous. Several had never been found and others were just too much handle for one company.

And Jack's face was still there, listed as number 97.

He gritted his teeth and killed the program but then suddenly, Jack blinked painfully.

"_**Son, get DOWN on the ground!...Wait who are you? Please, you gotta listen–!...You know how long we've been looking for you?!...But wa...GET DOWN!"**_

Jack squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed a fist over it.

"_**You've only got a 14 second window to make that opening before it closes, agent! Jump now!"**_

He gritted his teeth and growled painfully.

Tooth turned her head and her eyebrows rose.

"Jack?"

"_**Jack! Where are you?...Come on, this isn't–JAACK!"**_

Jack abruptly killed the program, pushed away from the computer, and stormed out of the internet cafe.

He didn't realize he'd also forgotten to close the French webpage.

...

The brunette had one hand thrown against the brick wall in front of him as he leaned heavily to catch his breath.

His other fist was rubbing his eye vigorously.

"Dammit, I thought they stopped," he muttered darkly to himself.

The flashes were almost nonexistent a month ago, but ever since he ran into that dead ELF agent, it was like they were starting to come back. And up until he'd met the princess, he'd only had one flash in a setting.

He'd just had three.

Something was very wrong.

Suddenly, a sound behind Jack hit the floor.

He snapped his eyes open and spun, raising his ungloved hands in preparation for a fight.

But he didn't need to.

The princess stood in front of him.

She threw his passport on the floor next to his backpack and backed away from his hunched form.

Her face was full of disgust.

"You're wanted," she growled slowly, shaking her head, "and you wanted me to follow you to Russia."

Jack glared at her and pulled up again to his full height.

"I _don't_ need this right now–"

"You son of a bitch, you lied to me this entire time!"

Jack looked passed her loathing and raised his hands slowly. He was mildly surprised that the princess could read French...but more surprised that he hadn't prepared for that when he was reading the article. He gritted his teeth.

"You don't even know me," he said darkly and Tooth balled her hands at her side.

"There was no picture but yeah! Clearly I don't!" she cried and he stared her down coldly. Tooth was the first to break from the stare off and he watched something inside her twist and make her frown.

"I thought I...I thought about trusting you after, you know, everything you..." she mumbled but when Jack leaned his neck out to hear her better, her face snapped back with abhorrence.

"But I was right. You're just like _him._ You even have a ridiculous name like _Pitch Black_!"

Jack took a step forward with his jaw clenched.

"Okay stop it."

"Or what? You're gonna call for backup?" she spit and backed away further. Her eyes were livid but her fingers had begun shaking.

"The French police are looking for you, so are the American, and the Russian, and everyone else! You expect me to believe a stranger who took out fifty guys with his bare hands over an international security report?!"

Jack kept advancing. "I'm telling you, princess. Stop it!" But she kept shaking her head.

"I bet this was all a lie. You just pretended to save me while Pitch grabbed my handmaiden, then planned to keep me in hiding so all my other sisters could separate and get picked off one by one. You're sick. You and your partner Pi–"

Jack held her against the wall and towered over her menacingly. He shouted furiously down at her face but she would yell right back up into his.

"I DON'T WORK FOR PITCH!"

"BULLCRAP, _JACK FROST!_" she spat. "YOU'RE A MONSTER!"

"NO I'M NOT!"

"OH SO YOU GET YOUR CONTRACTS FROM SOME OTHER TERRORIST HANDLER!?"

"I'M NOT A TERRORIST!"

"BUT YOU'RE STILL A FUGITIVE!"

"ONLY BECAUSE I WAS FRAMED!"

Tooth paused.

"I-I mean..." he stopped and his eyes widened.

Jack never stuttered, but now he was strangely struggling to formulate.

Tooth didn't realize how out of breath she was.

She also didn't want him touching her so she yanked his cold hand off her shoulder and he backed away from her form immediately.

He ran a hand through his hair. "I mean _okay_, I admit. I killed three operatives–"

"I knew it–"

"–BUT I DIDN'T KNOW THEY WERE AT THE TIME! I JUST...reacted. They scared me alright?! I wasn't...myself."

Tooth kept gasping softly for air but her hard gaze didn't crack.

"But they were FEDERAL," she bit out, "as in _spies._ You KILLED other spies. Only hitmen or assassins would do that!"

Jack turned away. Something kept gnawing at his insides the more she accused him.

_"Don't lie to me,"_ she whispered. She shook her head and somehow she began wringing her wrists. "I've seen you fight. Seen you drive. Seen you walk. You were trained."

Jack blinked. He then stared back at her with adrenaline racing beneath his chest, more than he could control.

"I was...but I can't remember where–AND THAT'S THE GOD HONEST TRUTH, PRINCESS!"

His face severe but his eyes alight with energy and Tooth frowned.

She wasn't sure but...somewhere under all that emotionless face and cold fury in his voice, she heard a tweak of _panic_.

Seeing the opening, Tooth bravely walked forward.

"No, you know! Stop lying!" Her angry desperation piquing again. "STOP LYING!"

"I'M TELLING YOU, I DON'T KNOW! SO JUST–JUST...ARGH!"

Jack tried to find an answer but his usually quick mind just...stopped. Her cerise-coloured eyes shone purple against the night and for once, Jack found himself stuck. And it pissed him off to no end.

When flitting his brown eyes around the alley didn't work, he exhaled sharply through his nose.

He spoke slow.

"Princess, _please_. I'm trying to get you to understand. Stop looking through me and listen! Would I tell you any of this...if I didn't think I needed to?"

He spoke slowly and deeply, even a little more softly and somehow Tooth's blind fury began to rationalize itself out.

She had to think, and as she watched him, anxiety bubbling beneath his blank facade, the memories danced around her head.

Tooth frowned as her tense shoulders slowly began to slump down.

"You..." She looked around the alley quickly, looking anywhere at his face. "You could've killed me at any point, called in a buddy, or left me for dead..."

"But I didn't," he finished for her. "And I don't plan to because I promised you that. I would protect you."

Jack watched the princess stare at him through her round jewel-like eyes, when the wind picked up in the alley, it blew around them and soothed his features.

He rubbed his eyes when the fringe of his brown bangs got into his eyelashes.

When he blinked them open again, he softly clenched his teeth and frowned.

At least she didn't run away this time.

So he spoke.

"JACK FROST was a codename. But they...they did something to me, the people I worked for, and I haven't been able to remember anything else since."

Tooth's mouth kept opening and closing like a fish and goosebumps formed all over her skin, but Jack continued.

"I don't why or for what...but I keep coming back to the conclusion that...that they wanted me to forget something."

Tooth's eyebrows knitted together.

"Why do you say that?" she asked, her voice tiny and afraid to shatter his unravelling state.

"Because I get flashes," he looked up at her firmly, his brown eyes sticking hers and grasping onto bitter hope that she was really looking _at_ him not _through_ him this time. "I keep seeing..._hearing_ things that I know I experienced but I can't remember..."

He stopped abruptly to rub an eye and a look of irritation passed across his face.

Tooth leaned forward slightly, her features slowly lacing with concern.

Her trust for him wasn't there yet, but the dreading curiosity was.

"And you think the memories...are from your past?"

When Jack stopped he looked at her again. "They have to be. Otherwise I can't explain why I can do what I do or work the way I do...I've been wandering around for a year, looking for clues or answers."

_"A year?_" Tooth's eyes squinted. "You don't...You don't even know your real name?"

Jack looked up at the dark sky. His irises flit across the sky and searched for something in the stars that he knew he wouldn't find.

"I...I knew I had a codename but not who I was, so I just walked around...and then three operatives suddenly cornered me in California and said that I'd been involved in a huge series of crimes that I'd never committed...When they tried to take me down, I...didn't how but my instincts just kicked in and before I knew it...they were all dead."

Tooth swallowed a dry lump in her throat. She knew this part of the story from the webpage.

"And still..." her heart raced, "You don't have _any_ clue as to who did this to you?"

"Just one. Only one that the memory gave me...All I remember is that I used to work in some kind of espionage company and...something called the GUARDIAN Program I don't kn–"

Tooth suddenly burst out laughing.

It made Jack's skin crawl since he wasn't expecting it at all but he otherwise didn't show any sign of jumping nerves.

He shot her a death glare.

"What?"

Tooth eyed him accusingly.

"Okay now I _know_ you're just making all this up."

"No I'm _not._" But Tooth waved a hand dismissively and looked away.

All her scared sympathy for him began to wash away.

"The GUARDIAN Program isn't _real_. It's just an urban myth."

He didn't say anything but Tooth caught a weird flash of confusion through his eyes.

The princess blinked back and gave him a nervous look.

"What you've never heard of it? It's like a modern fairytale that parents tell their kids as a bedtime story."

When Jack didn't answer, Tooth bit her lip and looked around.

She felt weird telling a guy a children's story without any children around to make it fun.

But she ended up starting anyway.

"It's a story my caregiver Mr. Sanderson used to tell me as a bedtime story. The GUARDIAN program was the story about a group of elite spies that were so secret, the rest of the world's spy agencies didn't know they existed."

Jack pulled back slightly and gave her a deep frown, but she rambled on, her jewel-like eyes wide with the story.

"Their company would pick the best agents in the field and secretly had experiments done on them to enhance their physical strengths and...and they developed weird control over the earth and sometimes even people. But they only used it for good, to protect people and stop the criminals that the normal spies and police couldn't catch."

When she finished, Jack watched her curl back in on herself and twiddle her thumbs.

"He always made them sound so amazing. He used to tell it to me to help me get to sleep when I was little and I almost always dreamed about having flying and having superpowers."

After a while Jack opened his mouth, his eyes slightly wider than she'd ever seen him.

"Where...did he hear that story?"

Tooth just shrugged and looked away.

"He said he made it up."

But Jack couldn't stop himself from squinting down at her. He had this weird feeling in his chest but didn't comment on it.

Then Tooth's snickering brought him back.

As he stared at her chuckling to herself, he frowned darkly and snapped up straight again. All the previous hope he had for her burned away like paper.

It was for this same reason that he didn't trust people in the first place.

They could turn their back on you when you needed them most.

"You know you shouldn't laugh at me just because I thought I came from some kid's made-up fairytale," he snapped coldly. "I still don't know who I worked for so right now, I don't what side I'm playing: yours or Pitch."

Jack watched her laugh die instantly but he continued.

"I'm also wanted by every spy agency in the world, remember that? China, Russia, England, France, the United States, more than half of Latin America, nearly all of Europe, oh and let's not forget..._here._"

That immediately shut her up and he said nothing else to emphasize his severity.

Jack was right.

He might be only sparing her life and protecting her until he figured out what use she could be to him. Knowing now that she was probably walking around with the most lethal man in the world, and a man whose moral compass was completely fair game at the moment, was _not_ a laughing matter.

Rather, it was a deadly one.

Tooth instantly felt bad for pulling a 180 on him when it looked like he was beginning to show the person behind the spy. She fretted but Jack had already moved to grab his things off the ground.

When he slung his pack on, he threw her an incredulous glance and moved ahead.

Tooth spun. "Wait!"

Jack paused and turned silently. His face was stony as ever and he heard her gulp in her throat. She pointed at his gear.

"Is that...all you have?"

"It's all I can afford to carry," he answered. "I can't stay in one place for too long."

And when he turned back around and headed further down the alley, he missed Tooth's look of epiphany.

She stared at his tense shoulders as he stalked away deeper into the shadows and, that's when she knew he was serious.

And she believed him.

She honestly believed, looking at him, that Jack was on the run and that he couldn't remember who he was.

Somehow his martyr march wasn't fake to her...she could tell it was real.

A part of her mind still kept yelling at her, screaming how it was possible to believe a killer, but as she threw a look back at the internet cafe and jogged after Jack's form, she didn't care.

She ignored it.

As they started walking, Jack and her paused in the alley and they both turned.

Nearby, they spotted a small Vietnamese family sitting around a beaten oildrum. The father looked like he was trying to start a fire in it so his wife could cook their early breakfast but it wasn't working.

Tooth used her gift and listened to the children's hungry complaints and his wife's urgency because they both had to leave for work in an hour.

Tooth frowned and when Jack suddenly turned off the alley path toward them, she didn't protest.

"Take off that thing," he mumbled quietly to her behind him and he heard her immediately unzip the janitor's uniform and scramble out of it. Tooth rolled it up into a wad as they approached the tiny family.

The father looked up at the two of them, his face dirty from sweat and exhaustion.

He was about to open his mouth and send them away, but Jack pulled out his lighter from his pocket.

When he sparked a flame and the father saw it, the man paused. Jack looked back at Tooth and nudged his head. She stepped forward and gave the mother and the little ones a kind smile before she slowly placed the fabric in the oildrum.

Jack leaned over and lit a section of the suit and soon the whole cloth caught fire and formed a giant flame.

The smiles on the family's faces erupted immediately. The father turned back to them.

(_Vietnamese_) _"I will need to use a tin smoke filter to block out the dark flames but...thank you both so, so much,"_ he said warmly and Tooth bowed with beautiful grace.

Jack flicked his eyes between them since he hadn't understood a word the guy had said.

That's when Jack's gaze slowed on the princess and he quickly looked her up and down, taking in the wrinkled blue-green sari and her cut-up skirt. In the fire's light, all of her colors, her skin, her dark hair and pink eyes, came to life. He didn't say a word and he turned to the wife and kids instead.

When he did, he didn't miss the big thankful smile the younger son was giving him.

Tooth completely missed the half smile he gave the little kid. Then they turned and left but halfway down the alley, Tooth stopped Jack again.

"Wait, Jack."

He turned but didn't say anything.

"I just...I wanted to say thank you about...well...you know."

Jack stared at her for the longest time until she felt like she wanted the ground to swallow her whole. And for the second time since they met, she tried giving him a small (apologetic) smile.

But then he turned around and walked away and Tooth bit inside her cheek.

He further confirmed to Tooth that people who were spies had terrible personalities and a lack of social skills but she followed him anyway.

She couldn't pull herself to trust him either just yet.

She believed his story yes, maybe...but he still terrified her.

...

They walked two blocks until they came across some parked cars.

Tooth had to watch guiltily as Jack broke into one and hotwire its engines. In less than three minutes, they were zooming away from Ho Chi Minh's urban center and heading west for the deeper slum suburban.

Jack made sure to drive on all the sketchiest roads until they hit a district that looked virtually untouched since the eighties. When they parked, Tooth got out tiredly. She'd nearly fallen asleep but refused to with Jack around.

She saw where they'd pulled up she blinked.

It was probably the scariest looking motel she'd ever laid eyes on.

"We'll crash then start again in a couple hours," Jack said briskly as he grabbed his pack and closed the door.

"But it has to be _here_ of all places?" she sputtered as she eyed the dirty windows and dead fly-covered lights.

Jack leaned an arm against the car and raised an eyebrow to which Tooth rolled her eyes at.

"Not extravagant enough for you, princess?"

"Shut up. Let's just get a room before I collapse."

Jack crossed his arms.

"The front desk is closed."

When she turned to look, he was right. There were no lights and it looked locked down for the night.

Tooth groaned and rubbed her neck. It was sticky from the heat.

"Well then why did you stop here? When you said 'crash', I didn't think you meant on the parking lot floor."

Jack walked past her usual jumpy self ahead to the windows of each motel room. She sighed then followed and for the next ten minutes or so, the two of them spied for which rooms had guests and which didn't.

Unfortunately, most rooms had people. In fact, they had entire families!

Tooth heard babies crying, women frying food, and men lounging around inside like they owned the place.

"Squatters," Jack muttered as he moved to go up the wooden stairs that lead to the second floor of the motel. "They've probably been here for months, maybe years. So if we find a room, I highly doubt we'll get checked."

He saw her nod absentmindedly but when she placed her hand on the railing and went to take her first step, Jack touched her wrist.

She looked up at him nervously but he pointed at her feet.

"Stay to the edge," he whispered. "Wood doesn't crack near the wall, so it won't squeak."

When he turned and went up silently, she followed his instructions blindly and tiptoed closer to the end of stairs. It didn't squeal once.

But once they got to the top, Tooth's mind went drifting again. Every light they passed or person she heard made her heart beat wildly in her chest.

But she wasn't worried about them catching her and Jack.

No, what Tooth was concerned about, was their living standards.

Tooth had been around motels before to know that she never wanted to sleep in one again. But these impoverished families had no other home to go to so they had no choice but to live in poor conditions like this. Seeing how the urban poverty had decayed in this part of Vietnam made the princess in Tooth come out.

This was the same kind of thing she wanted to avoid for her own people back on Punjam and all around Southeast Asia.

The poor needed better housing policies, more opportunities for employment and advancement, and easier access to the city...and that was only the little bits of it! Seeing all of it around her now made Tooth want to be back at school in the States and continue studying. She wanted to work even harder to come up with development strategies and for the first time since she'd been kidnapped, she was reminded again of how actually glad she was to be a princess.

She had the power to make change so she would get her chance, hopefully one day, when she survived all of this...or rather, IF she survived all this.

Eventually Jack found a dark room all the way around on the other side of the motel. It looked empty but taking their chances, he opened it easy with his lock pick.

When it was clear, Jack beckoned Tooth inside and shut the door, blocking the waking world outside.

He turned on the light.

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "The Baudelaire Orphans" – Thomas Newman**  
**


	9. Getting Wet, Upset, and Respect

Okay no, I had to give you guys this. NOW I'm gone! Lmao have a good week! (: And thanks for all the well wishes.

* * *

**"I want to reconcile the violence in your heart. I want to recognize your beauty is not just a mask."**

* * *

_Motel room, 4:13 am_

Tooth cringed.

The motel room was everything a motel room would be.

Jack swiveled his eyes around the room.

"Could be worse," he muttered and walked across the threshold to set his things down.

Tooth rubbed an arm and padded cautiously across the carpet in her flats. She tried to take comfort in the fact that it had a bathroom and two beds, and it was cool because a breeze was passing through the bathroom window.

She sighed and closed the door then went by the front curtains to peek through.

"Princess, don't stand by the window," he said in a hushed tone.

Tooth let the curtain drop and spun around. Jack's voice could take on such authority and it bugged her.

She frowned as he began to unlatch his belt and tossed his backpack on one of the beds.

"What time is it?" she yawned widely not giving a crap when Jack eyed her pointedly. She was running on virtually no energy at the moment.

"After four."

Tooth's eyes widened and she rolled her eyes to the ceiling.

"You gotta be kidding me," she exasperated and fell back heavily onto the bed.

When it groaned loudly beneath Jack visibly cringed and glared at her.

"_Princess_," he griped and she sighed and she pulled herself back up.

"Okay! _Jeez!_"

"Shhh!"

When Tooth stood up again, she glanced over to what Jack was doing.

He was holding a small netbook in one hand and moved to sit against the headboard of his bed. He huffed softly as he started it up.

Tooth blinked, not sure where that had suddenly popped up.

"Wh...Where do you pick that up?"

"Some guy. He won't miss it."

Exactly what a criminal _would_ say. Tooth laughed sarcastically and rubbed her head.

"My god..." she mumbled. "I'm lodging with a convict whose got amnesia."

Jack didn't say anything and kept on typing. After a moment he set the laptop down and flipped through some outdated catalogues that the motel had on a nightstand, anything to get his mind off this frenzy. As he did Tooth huffed and sat at a wooden desk. She began to mumble to herself.

"BT, all my sisters, those annoying, adorable...my family...I can't believe they're all gone."

Jack spared her a glance before he looked back down through the tourist catalogues he couldn't translate.

"What about your Prime Minister? Ty Bangkot," he pondered out loud. "Won't he be staying in Punjam with your uncle?"

"How did you know about my unc–"

"I can read a webpage faster than you give me credit for."

"Right," she mumbled. "Well I guess I can't go back home now until...I don't know when."

When he didn't say anything to satisfy her stress, Tooth got up and tried looking around the motel room for something to do. She poked outdated appliances ("Princess, stop it" "What? I'm curious!"), opened empty closets and drawers ("Princess don't do that" "Shh!"), dropped a broken handle on a dresser and nearly toppled over an ironing board in the back ("Princess, don't _go_ there" "Can you just leave me alone?!").

Jack was trying really hard to ignore her loud prodding as he did his work but she was _seriously_ ticking him off.

Meanwhile _she _was doing to same thing to him.

All the broken crap in the room did nothing to lighten her moods. Even the old tv sitting on the dresser didn't work and when she kept pushing the ON button and it wouldn't start, she growled passed her teeth.

"Argh, does _anything_ work in this place?" She gave the tv stand a fierce kick.

The loud bang it made against the wood made the two of them jump.

Jack couldn't take it.

"Princess, stop hitting the furniture!" he demanded through gritted teeth. "Stop touching _everything_ in general!"

"Son of a–" she rounded on him with a hellish glare. "Who are you, my father?!"

Jack finally snapped and flung down the pamphlets. He sprung up and walked toward her, pointing his finger in her face and spoke low.

_"You know, I've had just about enough of you!"_

"Oh great! Does that mean I can leave!?" She mocked him with wide eyes and fake smile.

"Why can't you just calm down and _be quiet__!_ What is your problem!?"

_"I _have the problem?!" She blinked wildly and pointed her own finger back in his place. "You're the one getting all Jason Bourne on me with your damn ninja routine and expecting me to be okay with you half-ass dragging me to god knows where!"

"I have to because it's for your protection."

"You made me jump out of a _freaking _window without knowing what was at the bottom, put me in a headlock, then you did a complete 180 on me and started being all nice! Meanwhile my loved ones are missing, Pitch is after me and frankly, I'm not sure I passed that midterm for my human development class!"

Jack actually paused for a second to blink and rewind.

"Wh..._What?_"

"I don't know, okay? Ch–God!" She covered her eyes with her hands before dropping them again. "All I know is that I'd rather cut off my arm and play with my detached limb right now than be running around with you!"

Jack scoffed.

"I'd like to see you try. You can't even unbind your own wrists when they're tied up. Besides...I haven't been exactly pulling you kicking and screaming have I?"

Tooth snapped.

Was he implying that she _liked_ following him? That she was okay with it?

The nerve!

Every time she tried to get away, he popped up and scared her into submission.

But if he wanted a fight, then so be it.

"Oh! So you wanna try? You wanna mess with me?!" She clapped her hands and raised them provokingly. "Fine! Come on, let's dance! Right now!"

Jack resisted the urge to roll his eyes so he squeezed the bridge of his nose instead.

"We _did_ already, and I knocked out three guys in the _head _for you. So can you shut y–"

Suddenly a sharp pain erupted on his shin.

"What th–"

Jack bent over slightly. He had not been expecting that AT ALL. She just kicked him in the shin!

His brown eyes were glaring at Tooth. She gave him a smug look and he clenched his teeth and growled angrily.

Tooth raised her hands and made the same beckoning 'come here' gesture with her finger that Jack had done to her before multiple times but Jack recovered quickly and rushed forward.

When she jumped a mile in the air, Jack paused mid-step and just stood there, staring her down an inch from her nose.

He was starting to see the real girl behind the scared yet regal princess image – Princess Thia was like a really colorful, scatterbrained, feisty little kitten.

And he felt completely out of his natural state because of it.

Jack was used to quiet, keeping things short, and getting his way. But with the princess, he got absolutely none of that.

She was all over the place, she didn't like to listen, and she didn't seem afraid to get in his face or take him on, even _after_ she'd seen what he was capable of.

He just...he was...

Jack moved to walk around her.

"I'm going to take a shower," he finally muttered.

Tooth's mind stopped.

She shook her head slightly as her eyes squinted.

"Wh..._Huh?"_ she sputtered and spun to face Jack.

Jack glared at her over his shoulder as he neared the bathroom.

"Leave. I dare you," he continued but he quickly turned to face her. "But let me remind that you're being hunted by an international terrorist organization, was kidnapped in public when you were surrounded by police hired to protect the world's most important people in one building, and that _**I**_ was the one who busted you out of _**THEIR**_ hideout."

Tooth said nothing.

That was the most Jack had ever said in one breath.

And damn it all to hell, he was right.

**Again.**

"So think about that, your highness," he said and walked back into the bathroom. "It's either _me_ and the international police who want me dead, or Pitch and the hundreds of criminals he's hired to kidnap you."

He then slammed the door and she heard him curse inside because he hadn't meant to slam it.

Tooth's mouth made weird sputters like a fish before she grabbed fistfuls of her hair and clenched her teeth.

_'The jackass!'_

She turned and slammed her head into a pillow. What she wouldn't do for a pack of spearmint gum right now!

Jack was infuriating!

Everything from his simple answers, his cryptic scowls, and his affinity to be like Daniel Craig's double...but you know, more American and less suave.

And unlike the British counterpart, Jack was a wanted man.

Jack was a gunslinger. Jack was a high-level combatant.

Tooth vaguely heard the water start running in the room behind her.

And Jack was also taking a shower.

She fisted her tanned hands in the pillowcase. How was he so careful to have time for any of this?!

He was a guy on the run so didn't he have a phobia for leaving traces of DNA everywhere he went? What if the cops found a strand of his hair and knew he was here?

'W_ell no! That's not really true,_' she muttered in her head, _'his hair is short.'_

Yeah, his hair.

His _hair!_

God, she loved his hair...his perfectly messy brown hair that was probably wet and sticking to his forehead right now.

Tooth's cheeks burned hot red and she jumped up from the bed, tossing the pillow away.

She couldn't handle this.

She knew from the first second he took off that gas mask and saved her that she was physically attracted to Jack. Everything from that hair to his eyes...and his perfect, white teeth._  
_

_'Gah! His teeth!'_

She walked toward the front door and faced the wallpaper beside it, doing anything to look away and distract herself from the water running in the bathroom.

Tooth tried to think about her midterms and how well she did, she tried to think about BT and the others or what Mr. Sanderson was saying to her professors right now. She also wondered when she would get to eat aga–

–and the worst part was he probably didn't even know he was doing all this to her!

Tooth thumped her head on the wall and groaned. Her hair created a dark curtain around her red face.

She had ALL THIS SHIT going on in the world right now, and yet all she could think about was the hot, wanted guy showering in the room behind her!

'_Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!'_

It was all so awkward for her, and her mind wasn't helping with all the images it began conjuring. Like what he probably wore underneath, or him running his large hands through his hair–

_'Oh GOD, Tooth! You're so...so...!'_

Her cheeks burned and her thumping grew but Tooth didn't really feel any pain.

She really needed to find a nice, safe guy who would treat her well. Not get drawn in by the bad-boy looks of a guy who was the _complete opposite_ of the word 'safe', and who pretended she was more like a sack of flour than a princess.

She'd been there before and done that. And they always ended bad.

Bad...ugh, like Jack.

"Dammit_,_" she grumbled. "Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit!"

"Do I need to ask?"

Tooth spun to find Jack standing close to her.

He had a towel around his neck and was using one end of it to rub the back of his hair as he looked at her peculiarly.

And he looked almost...normal.

Jack was wearing black track pants and a white long-sleeved Henley shirt unbuttoned at the top. He looked more like a college guy than a highly-trained operative. His brown hair was also sleek and dark from the water, making the white strands invisible.

He also looked considerably younger too like eighteen-nineteen now that he wasn't glaring at her.

But then, sometimes people mistaken her too for being in highschool thanks to her height and face.

Tooth's eyes went everywhere, taking in his pale skin bright against the shirt, his low-slung waistline, his lean build and his long, perfect torso.

And Jack...

Jack wasn't sure what was running through her head at the moment but he felt uncomfortable under her heavy gaze. He vaguely wondered if that was how _he_ looked at _her_ the whole time and decided it was creepy.

"And stop hitting your head, you're making noise in the next room!" he hissed.

Maybe changing outfits was a bit too much for her to handle.

He looked at her seriously and pursed his pale lips and waited for her answer.

"Well?"

She blinked.

And instead slapped him across the face.

Jack reeled back not expecting an assault A SECOND TIME. Jack's eyes grew wide, almost comically for the first time in so long. His hand went up to cover his cheek.

Weren't your senses supposed to _heighten_ after you took a shower?

Tooth felt good as she felt the sting in her palm.

He should NEVER be allowed to wear a shirt like that again.

Jack shot her murderous glare.

"WHAT THE HELL?!"

Tooth shushed him.

"THAT was for treating me like a ragdoll!" she whispered angrily. Her face was still red. "I'm not a little girl or an old lady, I'm a grown woman so I deserve better respect!"

Jack opened his mouth to say something rude but as she stood there with her fists balled he shut it. When she looked like she was ready to yell again, Jack raised a hand defensively.

"Okay, okay!" He rubbed his skin before he dropped his hand.

Tooth inwardly loved the rosy splash of color that was now on his pale face.

It was lovely...and well deserved. Jack sighed heavily and his grumpy scowl returned.

"_Okay!_...Sorry I coddled you. It's just like a natural thing when you're ...all this," he gestured to his things on his bed. "You get overprotective about everything_._"

"But I'm not a _thing! _I'm a _person_." She was inwardly thankful as she felt the heat in her cheeks go away.

"With _your_ height? More or less."

"Hey, you're not exactly six feet either." But he had long legs and that meant he still towered over her.

Jack glared but Tooth frowned.

"I'm serious, Jack. I appreciate the bodyguard position but you don't...have to be so cold about it."

She really thought she could get through to him after he told her his weird sob story about losing his memories.

But he seemed like he tried to ignore it again when he looked back up at her. He was still hung up on her laughing at his confession from earlier but didn't say it.

His grumpy look was also still on his face.

"So are you gonna shower?" he asked lifting both eyebrows.

Tooth immediately snapped out of it and rolled her eyes.

"Heh yeah, _no_," she bit out. "I'd rather be kidnapped again."

Jack quirked an eyebrow and Tooth realized how dumb that sounded when she remembered how traumatic getting kidnapped actually was.

"Fine, I'll just...I'll go wash my hair but that's all!" she threatened him as she moved around him. Jack sent her a look as she headed into the bathroom.

"Then just use the sink so you don't make too much noise!"

Tooth's head popped out from the door and she threw him a dirty look.

"Hey, buddy! I'm no princess 50% of the time!" she said clearly insulted. "I've shared a communal washroom with my dorm and my roommates helped me dye my hair different colors in second year. So I _know _how to use a sink." Then Tooth shut the door on his face leaving him annoyed.

Jack gave it a blank stare.

She was, hands down, the strangest royal he'd ever met.

...

Tooth stared at her reflection in the mirror. She frowned when she realized how she looked running around.

Checking her teeth, she grimaced sadly when she realized she wouldn't be able to brush her teeth for a while. So she went to rinsing them out instead. Afterwards, she touched her hair where it ended just below her shoulders and twirled a wavy strand in one finger.

Tooth then stared down at her clothes. She straightened the spaghetti-like strap of her sari blouse and tugged the gold trim that laced with it over her shoulder.

When she looked at her skirt, she sighed softly. There was nothing she could do about the cut fabric but then she rubbed the blue-green silk design and smiled nostalgically.

At least was it still beautiful.

Tooth heard her stomach grumble slightly and rubbed her hand over her bare flat midriff. She huffed then reached up and pulled out of the jewel pin hiding her blonde streak.

After it tumbled out, she pulled the short strand thoughtfully. It grew the slowest out of all her hair (only about down to her eyebrow) and BT and the others said it reminded them of a feather when she pulled up.

She sighed. She really hoped they would be okay.

After a few more minutes, Tooth decided that maybe she did want to have a shower and a split second later, she scrambled out of her clothes before she changed her mind.

She kept blushing as she stepped into the shower and was trying to get the thoughts out of her head about Jack as she washed all the sweat and dirt away from the her wild kidnappings. When she shut the tap, Tooth was actually really glad that she did end up switching decisions.

Grabbing the only towel in sight, she wrapped it around herself and stepped back out of tub and smiled at herself in the mirror. She felt clean and refreshed as her hair clung to her shoulders.

But now what was she going to do about her dirty clothes?

Tooth listened to the dripping of the water around her on the tiles as she looked around the tiny bathroom for any more cloths or towels. Silk dried quickly in hot weather like this so she could wash her clothes, pat them dry, and put it on again or at least wait in the bathroom until it did on a railing.

She kept backing up on her feet, trying to look at what was on the shelf above the mirror because her shortness made it hard.

She was against the door as she stood on her tiptoes and squinted up hig–

–a knock came at the door and it swung open, just as Tooth's toes spun on the wet tiles and she slipped...

...right into Jack's arms.

They fell back awkwardly before Jack caught his footing at the last second and they stopped from hitting the floor. But it instead became her practically leaning up against his knee and him pulling her up against his chest.

Tooth blushed fifty shades of red and looked up at him. She was gripping his strong arms for support and felt the lean muscles running beneath.

It made her heart race, but if looks could kill, Jack would be dead.

"Wh..." Her eyes immediately blazed. "DO YOU KNOCK?!"

"WILL YOU–"

_(Vietnamese) "HEY! IF WHOEVER'S YELLING DOESN'T SHUT UP RIGHT NOW, I'M COMING OVER TO KICK YOUR ASS!" "YEAH!"_

Jack sighed angrily and dropped his voice.

"I _did_."

Jack appeared controlled, steady, and grouchy as always, but she saw the tips of his ears burn bright red. His hands were holding her glistening, warm brown skin and he couldn't tell her that her cleavage (though still partially covered) was something he couldn't avoid seeing. She was also really soft.

"You don't knock THEN open!" she whispered back.

"I _thought_ you were just washing your hair," he hissed.

"You didn't hear the shower go off?!"

"No, I just came back!"

"From where?!"

Jack righted them up so they were properly standing. He dropped his hands from her like they were on fire while Tooth pretty much leaped back and continued to blush.

She readjusted (and tightened) the towel around her wet body and pushed her wet hair behind her ears. She sighed angrily, briefly standing on her toes then dropping back down, and he glared back.

That's when Jack showed her what he was holding in his hand.

It was an oversized t-shirt.

"I snuck out and got it from some family's clothes line five rooms away," he said in a deep, hushed tone.

"W-Why?"

Jack's face scrunched and became all businesslike again.

"I figured you'd need more than one towel to dry your hair since there wasn't any more than two, last I checked. And I used one already."

"You just assume I need two?"

"With_ that_ kind of hair, don't girls usually need more than one?"

Tooth wasn't sure if that was rude or smart. She shook her head.

"Wh–"

"Just _take_ it," he mumbled tiredly and dropped it into her hands. "I'm trying to show you respect, remember?"

When she blinked, he scowled.

"And stop screeching," he commented, "you sound like a bird." Then Jack walked away.

Tooth gripped the shirt in her hands and leaned out over the door frame.

"THAT'S NOT SHOWING RESPECT!"

And she shut the door on him.

...

The room was dark when Tooth opened the door and when she pushed it more open, the light from the bathroom pooled across the carpet.

She stuck her head out and around the corner, squinting past the black before she walked out and turned off the bathroom light. She decided not to wear the shirt but wrapped it around her hair. She was back in her full clothes.

There was a cool breeze running through the motel room but it added to the refreshing feeling running across her scalp.

Tooth felt like she could think better.

She padded across to the spare bed, seeing Jack already laying in his. He was sitting up against the headboard, typing on his stolen laptop with the screen illuminating his face.

Tooth bit her lip as she watched his brown eyes flit back and forth and his face twisted in concentration.

It was so fascinating...and creepy that she stopped.

She lied down on her side and said nothing, facing him as he typed away distractedly.

"What are you doing?" she asked softly and curious.

"Calculating our distance from here to Tan Son Nhat airport and...mapping out the Moscow's transit line."

"Why?"

Jack didn't answer back and Tooth bit her cheek. She frowned nervously.

After a few more taps on the keyboard, Jack opened his mouth.

"By the way. Your self-defence tactics?" He was referring to moves she'd tried to pull on him earlier in the alley.

Tooth raised her brows expectantly.

"Sloppy. Really sloppy."

Tooth blinked.

"B-But I was taught by m–"

"By who, a mall cop?" he quipped. "You're quick. I'll give you that, princess, but those moves are not going to help you in the long run. So ditch them."

"So then what am I going to do when someone catches me? Let them?"

"No, I'll be there. And I'll break their neck."

Tooth didn't like that comment so she tried to think of something else. She stared at his brown eyes, risking a chance to mumble softly again.

Her heart pounded rapidly.

She wanted him talk to talk to her.

"So...where are you from?"

"Princess, just go to sleep."

"No, come on. Or...how old are you? Because I think you're older than me but you have one of those faces th–"

"I'm working."

"What do you do for fun?"

"Do I look like I have the time for that?"

"You should always take the time to smile, Jack."

He flicked his eyes at her.

Anything to know about him more and to put a real face to the spy facade.

She wanted to uncover more of his secrets.

...But Jack didn't open up.

"Princess, go to sleep," he ordered softly. "We have to leave again in a few hours, you'll need it."

Tooth frowned and shook her head. "No."

Jack stopped typing and she watched his heavy brown gaze fall on her shadowy features.

"What?"

"I'm staying up. I'll lay down but...I can't risk you tying me up and throwing me into the back of that car, now can I?"

"You're seriously back to that?" He glared. "I told you, if I wanted to hurt you I would've done it already."

"Yeah, if you were a normal double-agent," she argued back. "But you're not. You're a confused spy with trust issues. Plus you're only running on fifty-percent of your actual knowledge so there's no telling what'll happen if another flash comes to you in the night and you decide to put a bag over my head."

Somehow Jack found all that funny and he turned back to his laptop screen lifting his eyebrows briefly so she could see it.

"Fine," he dared her. "Stay awake." And she glared back at him because she would.

And she did.

For about two minutes.

...

Jack turned his head slightly when he heard her soft breathing grow deep and even.

He watched her sleep for a second, her chest rising and falling and her hand curled against the pillow. Her dark hair and its special blonde streak had spilled out from the t-shirt around her hair and flowed around her shoulders.

When she pulled her feet together for comfort, he noticed she was still wearing her shoes.

She was ready to run if she needed to.

Jack couldn't help but commit to memory her sleeping face, uncreased of the real world's stress on her shoulders and softly innocent in her bubble.

He then blinked and turned back to his screen, going back to work.

He didn't fall asleep but stayed up to watch her half-protectively and half-suspiciously.

He still wasn't sure what she meant to Pitch Black, the biggest terrorist in the world and what the man wanted to do with her. But he'd used her to get to Pitch – he'd be damned if he let Pitch get away from him this time.

He glared at the screen as he continued to look for clues that would help him once they got to Moscow.

These memories were really starting to piss him off.

...

As Jack's typing went on further into the morning, Tooth's lip quivered in her sleep.

She was dreaming about wearing a pair of purple flats and being twelve years old again.

Her hair was in a long braid and when she rubbed her eyes, she was standing in front of a large mural.

It was a painting of her with pink wings, holding out her hand to several children who were reaching for her in a beautiful circle. She remembered it. It was back at the Hypunjam palace and was found in the deepest corridor leading to the basements of the castle. Surrounded by colorful tiles and jewel-encrusted walls, the corridor had a pretty little pool and some indoor trees planted to be a sanctuary. Tooth loved going there when she wanted to relax.

She looked up and saw the enormous glass ceiling far above her head. No one could see it from the outside because it was came out at the other end of the island's mountain on a far forested cliff. It was truly breathtaking.

That's when someone grabbed her hand and pulled her along.

A flash of red and a man in a full-bodied uniform tugged her across the floor. Tooth turned her head when a large mirror rushed past but when she looked at herself in the reflection she was surprised.

She wasn't Tooth.

She was–

**_"Theena! Wait!"_**

**_"Do not stop alright? Follow this man wherever he takes you!"_**

**_"But why? Tia, I'm scared!" _Tooth's voice was high and didn't really sound like her.**

_**"I know, sweet. I know! But we're all going on different adventures okay? Just for a little while."**_

_**"But I don't want to! Not without you o-or...or–"**_

_**"But you have to!"**_

_**"Miss, get to your protector. We have to leave now!"**_

_**"Okay, okay! Theena, we need to go!"**_

_**"But why?! WHERE?!"**_

_**"The tunnel's open! GO! GO! Unit 2, 4, and 5! Move the girls out now!"**_

_**"TIA! Where are we al–"**_

_**"Theena! Follow him into the tunnel now! He will lead you to safety!"**_

_**"But what about BT? And Tooth!? I don't want to go in the tunnel!"**_

_**"We will see them, sweet! I promise!"**_

_**"Unit 2 MOVE NOW!"**_

_**"GO Theena!"**_

**The man holding Tooth's hand yanked her and they ran through a tunnel below the mural.**

**One man in red was partnered with each handmaiden and each group was trailing some distance behind the other. Tooth watched the other handmaidens be pulled along in the light of the lanterns that the men were carrying.**

**Suddenly the tunnel at the end split into ten more!**

**Before Tooth knew what was happening, each man in red pulled a different handmaiden into each one while only two were left untouched.**

_**"NO!" **_**But the man in red had already pulled her into one and she lost sight of her sisters.**

**Then it was just the two of them, sprinting down a tunnel alone.**

...

As Tooth slept, she frowned deeply.

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "Undisclosed Desires" – Muse **I swear, this is like a sex song lol.**


	10. His Shotgun Princess

**Exams were awesome. Thanx you beautiful people. Glad you liked the shower scene (horny little–ahem! LOL.) But I'm back so be ready for more changes. (: And to people who keep PM asking, no! I don't have a tumblr I don't know how to use it or know what's going on over there :/ but my friend is currently showing me how in baby steps lol.  
New cover art by the faboolus teensophie-draws (thank you so so much! I love it to pieces!).**

* * *

**"Objection! I don't wanna be the exception, to get a bit of your attention."**

* * *

_Hotel room, 7:13 am_

Toothiana woke up to find Jack gone.

She rubbed her head and looked around, still trying to shake off the nightmare, but his bed was made and there was no sign of his backpack.

_'Yes!'_ And she bolted out of the bed but stopped short because he realized his police belt was on the desk. It meant he was still coming back.

Tooth sighed angrily and rubbed her head. _'Perfect, the one time when you DON'T want the cute guy to stay,' _she grumbled to herself.

She had no clue when he would come back or for how long he'd been gone in the first place. What if he was outside sharpening his knives or shooting birds for sport? Or what if he had one of his memory-rub-my-eye flashes that made him go off and do something stupid? Not that she cared anyway. Tooth didn't care what Jack did or what he thought.

She didn't even care if he forgot his stuff and decided to ditch her. It was for the best anyway.

_'His stuff, huh?'_

Tooth looked around the hotel room nervously. The warm orange sunrise poured through the open curtains and the birds and early mornings shouts from the families surrounding her filled her senses. It should've been relaxing, almost tranquil...but...

In her best cat impression, she slinked with a rapid heartbeat over to the desk.

_'Going into cardiac arrest this early in the morning CANNOT be good for a person!' _But she delicately took hold of Jack's belt and pulled it slightly toward her. When the metal latches scratched against the wood loudly she jerked but otherwise kept tugging it with determination.

"If he won't tell me anything about himself," she whispered, "then a girl's got to go digging herself, right?"

When it was near to her, Tooth leaned over and rubbed the police belt's material. It was black and coarse and it made her grimace that he'd actually had the balls to_ steal_ it from a police officer when he knew he was wanted by them. With a tiny huff, she then opened several compartments and poked around the contents.

Tooth found a small tube of grease (which she guessed was some kind of door lubricant), his lock pick set, a tiny flashlight and a set of earplugs. She rolled her eyes but smiled to herself – Jack is a Grade-A sneak!

But when she thought that was the end of that, her knuckle hit something on the far side of the belt and pulled it out of the gun holster. Tooth rolled the tiny oval-shaped container in her hand and frowned because she wasn't sure what it was.

_'A retainer case maybe?'_ she thought, but when she tried to pry it open it wouldn't budge. Tooth sighed and put it back, thinking that if it maybe _was_ his retainer it would explain his gorgeous pearly whites being so straight. She smacked her head.

...But then suddenly someone made a loud scream.

...

Jack gritted his teeth. His brown eyes searched the room.

The t-shirt she'd used to dry her hair was still on the bed but...no princess!

He rubbed his eye angrily, ready to get his fury on when he heard strange noises coming from the back of the hotel room. With a glare, Jack strode across the carpet threshold, tossing his backpack on the bed and went to the sliding doors that lead to the room's back balcony.

When his brown hair poked through the opening, Jack turned his head carefully, ready for anything.

He thought there was maybe a fight going on that he'd have to get in, or the princess doing something to piss him off _again_, instead...

_"Aani_...Come on, Aani! Bao wants you to come down now!"

Thia was in the next balcony over to theirs, standing on the wide ledge and holding onto the pillar. She was on her tiptoes, lifting her fingers to a tiny yellow bird that was sitting on top of its bird cage. A little boy about five years old was watching her with hopeful eyes as she kept on stretching.

"Come on, Aani!" she kept mumbling sweetly and Jack heard her begin to whistle in a light tune. He stepped through the sliding doors and stood there, just eyeing her cautiously as she continued to reach for the bird.

Tooth whistled one more time in a cute little bird tune and somehow the bird finally responded to it and hopped close to her finger. She grinned breathlessly. She always had a soft spot for birds. "That's it, girl! Come on!"

And finally with one more little _tweet_, the yellow canary hopped onto her finger and Tooth sighed happily. The little boy clapped as Tooth moved around the pillar slowly and put the bird back into its cage. When she locked it, she raised a finger at the little bird with a wide smile.

"Now no more flying out of your cage, missy!" Tooth mumbled playfully and the bird tweeted back to her. Tooth laughed and gave a quick whistle as if the two were having a conversation before she hopped down off the balcony ledge. She then knelt in front of the boy.

Jack couldn't see her face and she still didn't know he was behind her but neither paid attention to each other as the little boy smiled up at the princess.

_(Vietnamese) "C____hị (older sister) t__hank you!" _he piped with a blinding grin that made Tooth's heart melt. _"Daddy ALWAYS forgets to lock her cage when he feeds her and I didn't know what to do!"_

Tooth tilted her head cutely and gave him a laugh. "Oh, don't worry about! I'm sure he didn't mean to."

Jack frowned. Tooth could speak Vietnamese? But then he realised from the boy's confused look that he didn't understand what she was saying so maybe she only _understood_ it. Well, what do you know?

The boy scratched his head before he blinked and held up his hands quickly. _"Chi, wait here! I want to give you a present!"_

"No, it's okay! You don't have t–" But he ran into his house quickly before she could say anything else. When the little boy came back out, he was huffing like he'd run a mile but he had a big toothless smile on his face and he held out his palm and gave her his present.

It was an elastic hair tie with a few colourful feathers glued on it. He grinned.

"_I stole it from my sister! But she won't notice because she's got so many, so I want you to have one!"_

Tooth gave him a cheeky smile before she opened her hand and he placed it in her soft palm. She cooed and stroked the soft feathers. A precious treasure, just like what 'Bao' translated to. Toothiana smiled tenderly.

"Ooh thank you, Bao," she said sweetly and as she closed her fist gently around the gift, she tucked her hair behind her ear then leaned down to place a gentle kiss on the crown of his ebony hair. Bao blushed and giggled but he didn't run away like most boys his age would've done. It was truly a heartfelt moment with the orange glow blanketing over the two of them and Aani's sweet little tweets floating above.

But it was cut short when Bao finally saw Jack's dark figure looming behind in the next balcony over. The five year old's eyebrows shot up his forehead for a brief moment and then–_"Hey mister! Mister! Did you see what this nice lady did for me?!"_

Tooth cringed and spun around. Her eyes bugged out as she found Jack's figure just standing there with a blank look on his face and his hands at his side. She gulped, feeling like a kid who got into trouble and Jack confirmed it with the cold look he was giving her. The little boy didn't seem to feel the tension in the air though –probably because it was a fabulous morning, he'd just got his bird back, and it seemed like he was making new friends. He kept rambling a mile a minute.

_"Aani, that's my birdy, she got out because Daddy is so forgetful but she heard me crying and hopped over to help! She said her name was Toothie! Toothie is a weird name but I like her because she is pretty! Have you met her–"_

Jack stared down at him with a confused look. He had absolutely _no _clue what the kid was saying but he guessed his big eyes and brave mouth got him into of trouble a lot.

Tooth watched nervously as the little boy kept walking closer to Jack from across the balcony. She raised her arms cautiously like a mother in case the kid wanted to do something drastic like jump the ledge and go over to someone who was potentially the most dangerous person in the entire country! She was even more nervous that Jack might blow a fuse and start yelling at the kid for being annoying since she deemed him bipolar in the first twelve hours of knowing him.

_'But he wouldn't do that to a little kid, would he?'_ she lamented in her head. Sure, Jack was rude and mean to _her._ But he couldn't be so callous as to shoot down (pun intended) a little child's smile...would he?

The more she thought about his cold and bossy character, especially with the way he treated her last night saying _Princess-don't-do-this_ and _Princess-don't-do-that_, Tooth grew more vexed and pulled up to her full height. She stared him down sternly, ready to fight him if he tried anything or threw her the wrong look. She'd be damned if she let a child get hurt!

Jack seemed to notice the change in her demeanor because when he flicked his brown irises at her briefly, he paused. She wasn't the warm and sweet girl he just saw seconds ago. She was looked like she was ready to sit on him. And _hard._ Like the way a mama hippo is ready to crush predators who were after her babies, or a bear whose waiting for the perfect opening to tear your throat out. Jack was about to raise an eyebrow when the little boy caught his attention again. He scrunched his eyebrows when it sounded like the kid had asked him a question–

_"Baaaoo! Breakfast! Leave the bird alone, you'll see her after school!" _

And the little boy turned.

_"Coming Maaaaa!" _he shouted and Tooth had to resist plugging her ears. When the boy stopped, he gave Jack a small wave goodbye and told '_Toothie'_ to have a nice day.

"Goodbye sweetie!" Tooth waved and when the boy ran back into his house, she whirled on Jack. But he was already heading inside their motel room without a word. She sighed and hopped the short ledge and walked back into the room. As she did, she used the hairtie Bao had given her and tied her hair into a high ponytail just the way she usually liked. The colourful feathers stuck out beautifully against her dark hair and the blonde streak was resting against her forehead.

"So what?" she asked. "Am I grounded for sneaking out?" Jack sat against the desk and crossed his arms and surprise, surprise...he was still glaring at her.

"You shouldn't go out there," he said. "People might recognize you."

Tooth scoffed but when she went to open her mouth, Jack beat her tirelessly to it.

"I got you breakfast," he said sternly and went to his backpack. He tossed her some food and the second she caught it, her stomach erupted with hunger. Tooth blushed but looked at him weirdly as she sat down on the bed.

"Wait, did you eat?" she asked.

"Don't have to yet," he said curtly.

"Let me rephrase that. Why _don't_ you want to eat?"

"I'm very particular about what I put in my body."

"I've noticed," she mumbled to herself.

Jack stopped and lifted his head to look at her. Tooth froze as their awkward mishap with the bathroom last night (and his perfect body holding her against him) suddenly flashed in her head. She snapped her head him.

"I said _not _noticed!" she quipped but when he didn't respond she turned her face slowly away from him and gave the wall a '_Did-You-JUST-Say-That'_ look. Jack didn't respond and started to reach into his pack again. As he came back in front of Tooth, she was already halfway finished her food. She licked the spoon when she saw what he was holding.

"I got you something new to wear," he said and tossed a long soft fabric onto her bed. Tooth's mouth fell open at the sight of the new dress.

"Is...You got that for me?" she breathed astonishingly. Jack didn't seem affected by her behaviour as he turned to get his police belt on the desk and placed it on the bed to rummage around it.

"Is it okay?" he mumbled offhandedly while Tooth put down the food and reached over to touch it. Her cerise eyes widened. The material felt amazing. When she lifted the blue-green dress and stood up and put it against her body, she fell more in love with it.

It was perfect.

Tooth looked up to see Jack giving her an expectant glance, waiting for her approval. Tooth blinked.

Jack was a deadly operative, a mastermind, and a _huge_ asshole with the bossiest attitude on the planet! And yet...her heart fluttered and she couldn't help it.

A genuine smile pulled at the corners of her lips and she found she couldn't stop giving him a soft (almost shy) grin. She squeezed the dress' folds.

"I...I love it. Thank you," she said softly and under his intense, calculating look she felt her heart beat more rapidly. Jack looked back down as he kept replacing and moving things from his duty belt to his backpack.

"You can't run in a ripped skirt," he muttered as he was filling two glass vials with what looked like dirt and...something else. "So good thing there was a fashion boutique on the way back with a poor lock system."

Tooth lowered the dress and scrunched her eyebrows, but the smile refused to leave her lips.

"But you didn't think pants would've been better?"

Jack threw her an incredulous glare. "Obviously," he quipped before he looked at the dress then went back to what he was doing. "But that looked better."

His answer...It made Tooth blush but he didn't see it. He knew her style without even realizing it. Or, maybe he did. Self-consciously, she tucked her hair again behind her ear until she realized how easily she was swooning, then she immediately stopped. He wasn't looking at her.

Tooth bit the inside of her cheek and frowned. _'Get it together, girl! He doesn't even LIKE you!' _How could she even tease that idea with Jack? Besides whose to say he didn't already have someone else? Tooth tried to squash her romantic notions by remembering the situation at hand.

Pitch. Terrorism. Going into hiding. Got it.

When she really looked at what Jack was doing, she tilted her head. "Why are you doing that?" she was almost afraid to ask. It looked like he was pouring gardening soil and table salt from two bags into the vials he was holding.

Jack's eyes narrowed as he concentrated. "I'm an ex-spy remember?" he muttered. "I can't exactly be carrying around Grade-A bombs so I need to improvise."

Tooth started. She grew nervous at the thought of him having detonated bombs before, using them to blow people up. Jack must have felt her abrupt pause on her tongue because he threw her a steely gaze before going back to the vials. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. This girl thought the worst in everything.

"It's a smoke grenade, your highness, not a real bomb," he explained. "Just so we can get away like we did with Pitch's car, remember? You should actually be thanking me."

When Tooth's voice caught in her throat again, Jack eyed her again as he finished.

"Go change already. We need to leave."

And Tooth nodded numbly as she quickly flew into the bathroom.

...

"How do I look?"

Jack lifted his gaze at her voice and stared at her blankly. He'd hoped the dress wasn't too much or too big since he was guessing sizes...but it seemed to fit her slender form perfectly, outlining all her curves and her hips. Its skirt also stopped mid-thigh in a flattering way. As she smoothed it down, Tooth gave him a hopeful, tiny smile. It was slightly wrinkled at the bottom from being in his bag and she didn't have the perfect chest to fill it out but she loved how it looked on her. When Jack caught her gaze, he nodded curtly and turned back to his backpack.

Tooth inwardly crumpled at his cold behaviour. The romantic in her was waiting for a wash of emotion to cross his face. BT always said a man couldn't resist a girl in a nice dress! Then again, Jack wasn't exactly your average man...but it still hurt her a little. She scratched her warm neck embarrassingly before she looked at what _he _was wearing.

Tooth finally noticed that Jack had changed out of his sleepwear and wasn't wearing his previous spy-ready black turtleneck. He was wearing the same black trousers he had on the night before and his combat boots. But his shirt was a dark long-sleeved polo with two buttons undone at the top exposing his throat. His sleeves were also pushed up again, showcasing his toned forearms and pale skin. As Jack was pulling on his left leather glove again, Tooth crossed her arms.

"That's a ridiculous choice in clothes," she commented and Jack lifted his head at her, looking at her through the brown fringe of his bangs accusingly.

"What?"

Tooth had to admit though, he looked dashing and really handsome. Blue was _definitely_ his color. It worked with his smooth, snowy complexion but–

"It's so hot. You'll sweat under the sun in all those dark colors!" she argued but Jack seemed to have tuned her out halfway and was already zipping up his pack and latching on his belt. He suddenly looked like an off-duty cop to her and Tooth blushed.

"I don't sweat," he suddenly muttered and Tooth blinked.

"Wh...Are you shitting me right now?" she tilted her head and Jack threw her a dirty look. He went on to explain.

"I don't remember much from the company I was with, but I remember we went through alot of intense training to get to how we were," he spoke and tightened the belt on his hips, "They trained us to control our bodily needs in extreme conditions. It's all mental willpower, so I don't sweat. Or really need sleep, or get hungry..." he faded out as he finished working on his belt.

Then Jack walked toward her and reached into his pack and pulled out a small tube of toothpaste. "Here, I don't have any toothbrushes but it's enough," he said as he squeezed some on his finger and began to rub it onto his already white pearls. Tooth's eyes widened and she lifted a finger eagerly and he squeezed some out for her.

Tooth rubbed it into her teeth as she stared up at him gratefully. Jack was really resourceful. At least she didn't have to feel gross. After a moment, Jack moved to the bathroom to wash his hands. When he was out of sight, she discreetly sucked on the paste, swallowing its flavour to calm her nerves. It was all she could have since she couldn't get gum and it glumly reminded her of how tight her situation really was. When he came back out, she quickly dropped her hand and went to wash her own.

"Remember the plane leaves at 10:36," he said as he canvassed the room in a calculating glare. He was making sure they didn't leave anything and that he'd wiped all the prints earlier while she slept. "If we're not on that plane, we can't intercept Pitch's hitman and whoever he's following."

"What do you think they're doing?" she asked coming back out as Jack straightened the bed sheets one more time. He rubbed an eye and came back. "There might be a delivery going down," he stated. "That's usually why people get tagged. So if we stop him or get to the guy first and take whatever he's got, that's an indirect attack on whatever Pitch's plan was."

And Tooth nodded determinedly. She _really_ wanted to slug Pitch in the face for everything he'd done but since she wasn't physically capable of doing that, this would be the only chance she got to personally stick it to him good.

"Come on," Jack mumbled and went to open the door before he paused. He spun and faced Tooth. Tooth watched him narrow his eyes at her.

"What?" she asked nervously. Jack clenched his teeth behind his lips before he spoke.

"So now that I got you that dress and some food...you're not gonna try to leave me again, _are you?_"

Tooth saw the way his muscles tensed as he spoke. His posture was straight and proud as always but he looked ready to pounce at any moment – he most likely didn't warm up to the fact that she had hit him twice last night when he was normally very alert. Jack was never going to let her get the best of him again, and somehow that couldn't stop the warm smile from coming on Tooth's face.

She shook her head firmly.

"Not anymore," she said, her eyelids falling halfway over her eyes. "Promise."

Then after a moment to assess the sincerity in her tone, Jack turned and the two left the hotel room.

When they reached the car, Tooth overheard the morning gossip of some women sitting on their balconies. She tried to ignore their boring jabber but–

_(Vietnamese) "See? I told you, it WAS a pair of horny teenagers last night!"_ said a chubby mother.

Tooth froze and her face heated up in the burning morning sun. Oh swee–

_"Damn they can make noise!"_ her neighbour griped. _"But then, that's WHY they would drive out so far so they don't get caught...Hey, they don't even look like they're from here! HEY YOU TWO! GO BACK TO YOUR SCHOOL TRIP BEFORE YOUR TEACHERS CATCH YOU SNEAKING OUT!"_

Tooth snapped her head up at them with a blushing, angry look.

"SERIOUSLY?!" she shouted and they immediately flushed and ran inside their homes, surprised the girl understood their obvious dirty gossip.

When they were gone, Tooth clutched both sides of her head and huffed angrily. She turned back to Jack but he was looking up at the balconies. He then looked at her.

"What were they saying?" he asked charily but she just shook her head.

"Just...just get in the car and drive. PLEASE!"

...

_On the road_

"Jack, _stop_ going over the speed limit!"

"Oh so now you're telling _me_ what to do?"

"Payback's a bitch, huh?" she seethed and Jack angrily ran a hand through his bangs.

...

_Ho Chi Minh City's main subway line, 7:43 am_

The stairs leading down to the subway was PACKED. It was only seven in the morning yet Tooth was pretty the entire population of the city was trudging down the concrete steps to head deep into the subways.

On the way to the city, Tooth used her pin to hide her blonde streak so as the two walked together no one would recognize her hair. Jack ditched the car and the princess' old sari in some alley and when they entered the station, he had the netbook his hand. She nervously trudged behind him as he rubbed his eye.

Toothiana frowned because he seemed to do that alot. "A...Are you okay?" she asked over the morning noise of the subway station. Jack's jaw tensed as he dropped his gloved hand. He flexed his pale fingers anxiously.

"I don't do well in giant crowds," he grumbled. "Too many people so it's harder to track someone. And my stealth is specialized for the dark not broad daylight. I can blend in but..." He trailed off when they finally reached the platform and he spotted two trashcans.

Tooth watched as Jack pulled out the hard drive and snapped it in two with ease. Her attention was then distracted by all the people surrounding them. Everyone was flitting back and forth between the east and west trains and the smell of the city was overpowering. As she turned her head, Tooth suddenly saw a group of girls begin to walk past her. They giggled when they went around Jack.

Tooth cooed softly. They were all wearing the same colored dress as her (but in different styles), and they looked so posh in their heels and makeup. When she tilted her head and translated the cover of a book one of the girls was holding, she smiled.

_HCMC University of Fine Arts – Fashion Studies._

They were fashion students and Tooth fondly thought of how exciting a career surrounded by all those colors and creativity would be. And to look so pretty! Oooh...

Suddenly her dream bubble popped when Jack's annoyed face entered her view again. He shoved a broken piece of the netbook into her hands and she gaped.

"Wh-_Why_ would you break it?!" she sputtered. Tooth loved gadgets and all things tech so it broke her heart to see something so efficient just turn into scrap metal. But Jack wasn't even looking at her as he scanned the crowd, ever-suspicious.

"Go over there and throw it in the other trash," he said pointing ahead. "I doubt anyone's gonna search for both halves...and take this piece of the hard drive too."

Jack then gave her light shove as a send off and Tooth threw him a dirty look.

He _really_ needed to stop that.

_'Trying to show me respect, my ass!'_ she mentally growled as she walked ahead to the other trashcan. By the time she got there, so many people had filled the space between her and Jack that she couldn't see his face, let alone his hair. She sighed as she chucked the sad little pieces of the computer into the bin. That's when the princess looked up and heard the laughs of the fashion school girls ahead of her. She saw their blue-green dresses skirt ahead.

Tooth froze.

...

"The west train will get here in about two minutes, but I need you to do something for me before we head to the airport, alright?"

No response.

Jack spun around and looked down. He expected her to have come back already but when her snippy, little tone didn't banter back, Jack sensed it.

He stood on his tiptoes, searching the crowd.

"Thia?" he called out loud, using her public name. "THIA?!"

As Jack's voice shouted across the platform, Tooth quickly pulled the feathered hairtie out of her hair and let her dark waves fall against her back. Walking unbeknownst behind the fashion students, she blended in perfectly from behind, matching their strides and swaying hips.

"Thia, WHERE ARE YOU?!"

In a quick jump, Tooth sped up her walk and moved around the girls. But when she walked toward the east train which had just arrived, they saw her move in front of them.

_(Vietnamese) "Aww I LOVE her dress!"_

And Tooth, chatty and girly as she always was, turned her head over her shoulder to flash them a blinding smile.

"Thanks!" she started to say but her eyes caught Jack's in the crowd far behind.

When he recognized the pink irises, he bolted.

_'MOTHER OF–!'_

Tooth spun on her flats and sped down the platform, politely weaving as fast as she could through the crowd. She could hear people shout angrily behind her which meant Jack was _less_ than polite and shoving people aside to gain ground.

That's when she heard the east train's melody go off – it was going to close!

So at the last second, Tooth stepped onto the train...and Jack's face appeared just as the doors sealed. But he didn't make it.

Tooth waved with a cheeky smile as she heard the brakes underneath unlock. She couldn't believe she'd just managed that! Jack threw a fierce punch at the unbreakable glass and she jumped back in fear.

_'That little shit!'_ she cried in her head as the train pulled out of the station and his face disappeared. When they moved into the tunnel, Tooth sighed and began to move away from the door. An old man sitting on the side gazed up at her nervously.

_(Vietnamese) "Miss, should we call the police for you?"_ he asked but Tooth shook her head reassuringly. She gave him a tight smile.

"Oh no! Don't worry," she babbled in English not caring if he understood because she used her fingers to explain what she meant. "He's crazy," she rolled a finger beside her head then made a heart shape with her two fingers, "Crazy in love."

The second she moved away from the old man, her smile fell off her face in terror.

_'Ohh if he HEARD that, Tooth!' _she cried in her head. _'You are DEAD. You need to get off this train NOW before he catches up!'_

And she realised how true that might be. For all Tooth knew, Jack was pulling a real spy move and was probably on top of the train right now, racing the wind under the tunnel to her compartment–

_"Oooh!_" Tooth whined angrily under her breath and moved further into the train. She shoved people aside less than gracefully and even made a guy's morning coffee spill on his shirt. She pushed until she was all the way on the other side facing another set of doors. Bouncing on her flats, Tooth tapped her fingers anxiously against her thighs and bit her lip.

"Come on, come on!" she mumbled hurriedly. When the tunnel came out at the next stop and the familiar ding opened the doors, Toothiana bolted out and into the new wave of people. She did a complete 360 then a reverse 180 trying to figure out where she could go.

_'Oh no stupid!' _her mind yelled. _'Use the signs! You can read them!' _Tooth then lifted her gaze and read all the Viet script. She needed to find...somewhere! Anywhere! Just to hide away from Jack, Pitch, and _everyone_ until she could figure out what to do. The city had over 10 million people! Surely she couldn't be found if she snuck off right.

Tooth's eyes widened as she read the signs and arrows. There was a mall a block away, an open market two blocks east, and a university in the building next to the station! She tore through the crowd instantly.

Tooth hopped two steps at a time up the subway concrete stairs and took a horrid whiff of the downtown street when she reached the surface. It was warm and congested but she couldn't enjoy it as she whipped her head one way and ran in the other.

Tooth ran and ran, until she got to the streetlight. But when it turned red she growled and kicked the post.

Jack was...Jack would...dear god, Jack was going to tear her to pieces!

With shaky fingers and cheeks red from running, she tapped the pole. The people surrounding Tooth looked at her funny but otherwise didn't comment. When the light finally turned green, Tooth gave one more look behind her and strode swiftly ahead through and ahead of the morning pedestrians. Then when she crossed the street, she sprinted up the narrow path and tried to find an opening into a small complex.

Her sweat was pouring down her temples and her neck that she wiped it away bitterly.

"Where's the entrance?!" she mumbled frantically. "WHERE'S THE ENTRANCE DAMMIT!"

A second later, a dark figure swooped down from the awning of a shop and grabbed her upper arm into a small parking lot on the side. Tooth screamed but Jack covered her mouth with his glove. In a perfect world, he would've snapped her neck but life had other plans for him.

"You know," he whispered darkly. "I promised I'd protect you. Awake or unconscious works for me but right now _unconscious_ would be less work!"

"Hah!" she huffed nervously after she yanked the glove away. "You said I wouldn't make it out of your sight for 2 minutes. That was _ten _at best!"

"Five!"

"Ten!"

Jack growled angrily and stepped away from her. He ran a hand through his hair and Tooth wrapped her arms around herself. His fingers twitched when a breeze whirled through the empty lot. Then he spoke.

"You know what? Fine!" he said firmly and raised his gloved hand. "You wanna be stupid, you want to get kidnapped?"

He then stepped aside and throw his arm out behind him, giving her a path.

"Then be my guest. I'm done with this damn cat-and-mouse chase."

Her mind cheered _Yes!_

And yet...

Tooth froze, and Jack continued with a cold look on his face. "But how're you gonna manage to pull that off, huh? Tell me 'cause you can't run. Not alone. You don't know how and you won't make it to the next sunrise, not with the resources Pitch has got. So _where_ does that leave you?"

And she didn't say a word, still stunned. The fire in her was slowly dying as he finished.

Jack gritted his teeth. "I'm trying to stop a terrorist but maybe leaving you out in the open to fend for yourself is easier bait than tracking him."

When Jack moved around her and confidently walked away, she turned to stare at his dark-blue shirt but he didn't once turn back around. He was...really, _really_ leaving?

Tooth made a fist in her skirt and bit her lip as the rationality of his words sunk in. She really _did_ just pull a dumb move again did she? And just last night she'd told him she deserved better respect ...Tooth looked down when she began rubbing her thumb against the dress' soft fabric.

_He'd_ gotten her this dress to move quicker in...along with the food to keep her going. Then she remembered how they stared at each other as they rubbed toothpaste on their teeth.

Tooth frowned.

She'd made it look like she'd forgotten this wasn't a game and Jack wasn't playing. He didn't look to fond of games.

When she was with him, all she had to endure were his deep frown lines and all their emotional tension. Everything else, he dealt with _for her_. If she demanded respect from Jack...as a princess, as a sister, as a student, she knew she was taught better...she had to give it too.

Toothiana sighed then moved forward.

Just as Jack turned back out onto the street, her tan fingers shot out and grabbed his wrist. She intended to yank him back, but Jack's subconscious kicked in. On impulse, he spun and twisted her arm behind her.

"Gah!" she cried painfully. Jack's eyes widened slightly and he instantly dropped his hold. His eyebrows furrowed together but he didn't apologize as he jumped away.

"What _now?_" he spat and Tooth rubbed her shoulder as she faced him fearfully.

"I just...I-I'm sorry!" When he looked at her coldly, not buying the emotional switch, Tooth's frown deepened. "I...With my whole family vanishing and my palace being on lockdown I feel like _nowhere_ feels safe anymore, not even with–"

She stopped. Jack's brown eyes bored into her magenta ones and she looked down pitifully and shrugged timidly.

"I want to hide and you..." she said softly. "You want me to run right back into the fire that's destroying my life. So I just..." she repeated the same words he said to her the night they got away, _"reacted_...I'm not myself. Can you really blame me for that?"

After a moment, Jack sighed. His fingers flexed at his side.

"No...I guess I can't." When Tooth didn't immediately reply and rubbed her arm, he took a step toward her.

"But see, that's _why_ I need you to let me protect you," he continued sternly. "I get it. Nowhere feels safe for you, and I don't expect you to trust me, partly because I don't want you to, remember? But just..."

When he didn't finish, Tooth looked up slowly. Her big round eyes stared at him expectantly but Jack lost his words and glared at the ground thoughtfully.

Unspoken tension floated in the air so Tooth sighed. She then rubbed her eye tiredly and Jack automatically copied her action. After he let his fist fall, he turned around and beckoned her with a finger to follow.

Tooth ended up walking behind him slowly. They moved down the street in silence with Jack looking back every ten seconds – but each time he did, Tooth felt dread creep into her stomach. It was unnerving. After a while, he stopped at a resting area and placed his small backpack on a park bench.

Tooth was about to ask why'd they stopped when he pointed across the street. When she looked around his solid form, she saw an open salon opposite to where they stood.

"Go get a hairdresser," he said curtly and Tooth blinked.

"What?"

He threw her a look before Jack pointed to the crown of her head.

"That blonde streak gives you away," then he frowned again "Why did you dye it like that anyway? It's unconventional."

"I didn't," she miffed. "I was born with it."

Jack said nothing and eyed it one more time. Man, this girl was weird – but he'd met weirder.

He then fished some money out of his pocket and handed her a sufficient wad. Tooth blinked again before she eyed the hair salon. She then looked up at him.

"A-Are you sure?"

"Look, every agency, police department, and hitman hired by Pitch are looking for Princess Toothiana." And when he said her full name Tooth felt her skin flush. It sounded so good to hear her name on his lips but he frowned at her. "So you can't be her anymore."

Tooth didn't like that comment but nodded her head anyway and with a brave stride, she moved away.

"Oh," he called to her and she turned nervously. Jack went to lean against a tree next to the bench. He crossed his arms and gave her a hard look. "And don't even _think_ about trying to run. I'll be watching your dress move the entire time. Everything down to the flip of your skirt."

And Tooth couldn't stop the disturbed scowl that passed her features.

"That doesn't sound right," she commented. "And if you're supposed to be protecting me, then start looking like a bodyguard and less like a kidnapper. People will get the wrong idea about us."

As Tooth walked away and Jack huffed and went to sit on the bench.

...

_Forty-minutes later, park bench, 8:39 am_

Jack was busy staring at his glove. He was trying to enjoy the minutes of solitude to himself when a cool morning breeze. It passed beneath the shade of the tree and rustled his brown bangs. He flexed the fingers of his ungloved hand thoughtfully.

That's when the familiar padding of flats approached him. Jack looked up.

Tooth's hair blew in the light wind and she tucked a piece behind her ear nervously. Her hair was no longer just cocoa brown but had golden highlights mixing into it. and her natural blonde strand of hair was brown (much to her sadness). She also had side bangs and the size of her hair appeared shorter and thinner, curling out around her cheeks and shoulders. When she stepped up to him, Tooth coughed and rubbed her neck.

"Uh..." she started with a light blush, unsure if she even _wanted_ an opinion from Jack. She liked the new look all on her own and she didn't need someone telling her different. "I wanted to ask her to die it all blonde but I...I can't speak Vietnamese so the stylist just started cutting and doing all this before I could stop her."

She then leaned down and handed him the remainder of the bills she had left. When he weighed it and realized that not a lot had been used, she shrugged. "I managed to get them to give me a deal. And they also gave me these."

Tooth then lifted her hair and Jack saw on her ears hung two blue-green feathered earrings. "They said it would go with my look," she added then fanned out her skirt and did a quick curtsy. She smiled shyly and bit her lip. "Is it...o-okay?"

Jack continued to stare at her as she stood underneath the morning sun. The sunlight hit her blonde tresses and shone brightly, accenting her gold skin. She was glowing and Jack lifted his eyebrows.

When he stood up, Toothiana took a nervous step back and he spoke.

"Well, there's nothing we can do about your eye color but it looks good," he simply said. After he collected his things and worked around her, Tooth just stood there and scratched her elbow. A warm blush blossomed across her cheeks but she otherwise didn't say anything.

When she turned to face Jack, he was running a hand through his hair again. That's when she looked up at it and tilted her head.

"You know," she started and Jack turned to face her quizzically under the morning sun. She vaguely wondered if he'd burst into flames like a vampire thanks to his snowy complexion before she continued. "Maybe you should think about dyeing your hair too. You look like you're really stressing out."

When Jack raised an eyebrow she pointed to his head. Indeed, Jack's hair had more prominent whites now that she was really looking at it. "You have more whites than when we...first met."

Jack blinked and rubbed a hand through his locks and Tooth had to resist the urge not to coo since he kept messing with his sexy swirls. After a moment he pulled his hand away from it and looked down. She was surprised when he glared before he dropped his hand.

"No, that's the dye _already_ washing out," he said. Tooth blinked.

"What?"

Jack looked back down at her seriously. "The brown dye I snagged a couple weeks back was cheap since I couldn't afford a decent one. It must have worn out some more after I washed it last night."

Tooth shook her head.

"Again, _what?_"

Jack shot her a dubious look. "My hair _is_ naturally white," he finally iterated.

Tooth tilted her head and her hair fell girlishly over one shoulder as she squinted her eyes.

"That's...weird," she commented and Jack tightened his hold on his backpack's strap as he looked down. He didn't like talking about himself but he tried anyway.

"It never used to be," he mumbled loud enough for her to hear. "But that's why I need to remember who I worked for and what they did to me."

A moment of awkward silence passed between them with Tooth opening and closing her mouth. She was trying to formulate a sentence and Jack silently prayed she wouldn't. He then moved quickly around her and walked down the street until Tooth finally figured out what to ask. After the initial shock of learning something new about him (and accepting that white hair _did_ make sense with his strangely pale skin), she trailed after.

"So how're you gonna get me out of the country if everyone's looking for me? I have no passport remember?"

But Jack rolled his eyes at her over his shoulder and raised a hand, gesturing to follow. "I've got it covered."

And they kept walking, trying to beat the morning sun and the clock countdown for their flight. That's when Tooth realized...they were trekking into a sketchier part of the city.

She gulped.

_'Oh god, what NOW, Jack?'_

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "Objection" (Tango) – Shakira **When I hear her say "I've got to get away!", I imagine Tooth sprinting like a scared chicken lol.**  
**Imagine her new dress as you see fit. Long chapters = physical pain lol. Future condensing in progress...**


	11. Barfights, Passports, & A Touch of Luck

Note: I HATE polo shirts lol. So for this fun (but difficult) chapter, I'm using it to my advantage.

* * *

"**Hey kid! I have to question! What's with the violent aggression? Details blurry, lost him too early. Welcome to the family!"**

* * *

_Alley, 9:21 am_

"Nice rims," Jack mumbled as he approached a sleek, silver BMW and stopped to eye them more appreciatively. Where Tooth was fond of birds, Jack was fond of fast cars. But when he kicked the wheel slightly with his boot, the vehicle's sensitive alarm system went off and echoed across the dirty alley.

Jack rolled his eyes and bent under the front of the car to trip the wiring from the fuse box. When it stopped, he pulled back up and kept moving while Tooth nervously followed in tow.

There were cars parked into every available spot on the tight street and the two of them weaved around them heading to...well, Tooth wasn't sure where but Jack kept flitting his eyes up and around. She bit her lip as his fingers twitched at his side and he clenched his jaw.

"Come on Jack," she grumbled nervously. "This isn't funny, why are we here?"

Jack didn't say anything as he scanned the alley, searching for something. When he spotted what he was looking for, he moved around several vehicles and went toward it.

"I'm getting you a passport," he simply said but when Tooth decided to jog up to see where he was going, she froze.

"_No_," she raised both eyebrows, "you look more like you want to start your own spice garden!"

Indeed, as she crossed her arms, Tooth watched Jack kneel in front of a large wooden crate filled with different herbs and green plants. He narrowed his eyes as he scanned each one.

_'Thyme - call for a hit'_

_'Cilantro - smuggling operation'_

_'Rice stalk - break and enter'_

_'Coriander - weapons exchange'_

Finally, he reached into it and plucked a tiny stem from one of the clusters.

When he stood back up, Jack walked toward her and held it out for her. Tooth grasped it and twirled it in her fingers.

It was a four-leaf clover.

"Hang onto it," he said curtly and she blinked up at him.

"Why?"

"Because it's the thing that's gonna get you out of this country."

_"Seriously?"_ she started to say but Jack had already spun around and kept scanning the alley for...something else. So Tooth just sighed and placed the clover behind her ear before she fluffed her hair and moved forward. Suddenly, Jack paused for a second to look up briefly then made a high jump at the wall.

A second later, he pushed off it and used his hands to catch the bar of a rusty fire escape ladder nearby.

She gasped. The ladder was nearly invisible against the rest of the steel hanging from above and Tooth wouldn't have noticed it if Jack hadn't been looking for it. He swung tightly and with controlled momentum, pulled himself down to the ground with it in front of Tooth. After he made sure it was secure and stared up, he clambered up a few feet before he twisted down to look at the princess.

Jack narrowed his eyes.

"Well, what're you waiting for?" he snapped insinuating that she follow him up the steel ladder. "Or would you rather stay down there and wait 'till the other guys show up?"

Toothiana snapped her head up at him, eyes wild.

"What other guys?!" she cried and Jack rolled his eyes as he continued to climb. She gulped and grasped its rusty bar fearfully. Tooth wasn't afraid of heights, far from it, but she didn't like knowing that _as usual _Jack liked to keep things from her and drag her wherever he felt. Still...staying down in the alley surrounded by all the morning silence and shady cars was even worse. So after a moment to compose herself, Tooth breathed deeply and climbed up the ladder slowly, taking her time with each bar and her footing. She was also a little self-conscious about going up a ladder in a skirt.

By the time she finally got to the steel balcony of a third floor apartment complex, Jack was standing there with his arms crossed. His stance annoyed her.

"What?!" she snapped.

"Congratulations," he said deadpanned. "I'm a hundred years old."

Tooth looked up and gave him a rueful smile.

"You know, you're probably ten times _more_ fun when you're drunk," she bit out and Jack narrowed his eyes.

"I don't drink. Sobriety's essential for a spy's mental clarity." When she finally got to the last bar, he held out his hand to pull her up. She mumbled a 'thank you' but when she righted herself, she shot him a look.

"Well, you would know since you _suck_ the fun out of everything," she said sweet-as-sugar and went to pat his cheek but Jack caught it and pulled it back down. She rolled her eyes.

As she smoothed her dress, Tooth stared ahead of her. The balcony lead to a steel-trapped door with strange Viet marking carved into it. She narrowed her eyes and translated the wording.

"L-Leprechaun's Den?" she breathed nervously.

"Don't make that booze comment around any of the guys, alright?" Jack stated offhandedly as he pulled his glove on more tightly and flexed his fingers. "Otherwise, you'll get pushed out of your comfort zone."

And before she could open her mouth to argue with the idiot that had already happened _hours __ago_, Jack pounded on the door twice with his fist. Seconds later, the door opened and a grumpy looking Vietnamese body builder was staring down at the two.

Jack leaned his arm against the frame and smirked up at him.

"Remember me?"

And Tooth was shocked as she watched the doorman's eyebrows shoot up into his greasy hair.

_"J-Jack!_" he sputtered in a thick accent and quickly stepped to the side to let Jack through. He didn't say another word as the shorter, skinnier man brushed past him.

Jack didn't tell Tooth to follow but she trailed behind and stepped in after him. When the bodyguard closed the door behind her, she felt a powerful blast from the air-conditioning system wash over her. She shivered and took a look around the new place nervously. It lacked the beautiful sunlight that was outside.

Tooth instantly felt her anxiety skyrocket.

The apartment floor had been expanded into one room and there was crude rock music pounding faintly through high speakers. Dirty men were lounging around everywhere, drinking hard liquor, smoking, and spitting at each other. Two men in the far back beside the grungy bar got into a brawl and glass was thrown, smashing against the walls. When she flicked her gaze down ahead of her, she saw several men counting wads of money and crossing what looked like drugs and guns across their dirty wooden tables, and when they saw her eye them, they shot her dark smiles. Tooth's hair on her neck shot up like lightning rods.

It was a thug hangout! Jack had brought her to a heavy gangster den where every person in the room looked like they belonged on a police wanted list. She went to reach for Jack's forearm but remembered what happened earlier when she touched him while he was angry and on edge.

So instead, she leaned up as high as she could to his ear.

"It _figures _this would be your kind of place," Tooth muttered bitterly. "You got me all dressed up _for criminals?!_"

"Welcome to my world," Jack muttered as he pointedly lifted his eyebrows. He soaked in the cool air and flexed both his hands as the AC blew frigid wind into his face. Jack then grabbed her wrist and confidently moved across the floor.

It was all Tooth could do to clench her jaw behind her closed lips and give the back of his head the dirtiest look she could muster. She _really_ wanted to wring his neck!

That's when a scrawny guy with bloodshot eyes suddenly flew into Jack from the punch of another idiot. Jack actually _chuckled_ under his husky breath and caught the loser.

"Come on fellas," he smirked and dropped him on the floor. "It's _way_ too early to get a party started."

When the skinny guy turned to see who had dropped him, he sputtered.

(_Vietnamese_) "_E-Ey! It's Jack!_" he gasped and suddenly the whole room grew quiet. Tooth's eyes widened as she felt all the testosterone settle on the two of them. The rest of the criminals got up from their tables and sauntered in a large circle around the three. As Jack walked over him and held out his hand for her, she nervously eyed the shaking man at her feet. But when he looked up at her expectantly, Tooth glared back and hopped gracefully over his body. When she crossed over him, Jack slipped his arm around her waist, showcasing his relationship with her and the two walked together.

Tooth surprisingly thought nothing of it. She just really wanted to rub her arms for comfort but kept them stiffly at her sides.

All the while, she kept her eyes and ears open, listening to their hushed tones.

Tooth was deeply, _deepl_y terrified of all the heated gazes on the two of them. _'Shady!' _she cried in her head. _'Everyone is shady, shady , SHADY! Including Jack!' _But she decided that pretending to look like she owned the place over looking scared was necessary. Otherwise she knew they'd try to use it against her. So with her best Jack-imitation, she kept a cold look on her face as she continued to follow him. And for added measure, she lifted her chin and tried to be the epitome of royal authority, even if none of the men knew her – and they didn't.

_(Viet)_ "_That kid's back,"_ they mumbled hotly under their breath before one nodded at Tooth, _"Who's the girl?"_ And when Jack flashed him a look they snapped their heads sideways. _"Don't-Don't look at him, idiot!"_

They remembered the last times he'd shown up. The den held underground pit fights four times a month and Jack mysteriously appeared out of nowhere and participated each time. Everyone bet against him since he was the new 'skinny, American guy' and they didn't think he'd last long. But after twenty rounds, he kicked all their asses and killed three of their cheaters. But he didn't take the money, he just wanted to prove a point – and he did. Since then, every guy in the hangout knew the name _Jack Frost _and didn't mess with him when he arrived.

They weren't sure where he came from and why he kept coming back, and in his dark, blue shirt and police belt, they feared that maybe he was a corrupt cop. Jack meanwhile had a smirk on his face, unfazed by the pair of eyes in the room. He was actually enjoying the atmosphere and took a deep breath, taking in the smell of muscular stupidity and black market activity. Having been trapped alone with (and yapped to death by) the colorful princess for the past twenty-four hours nearly drained him, but being back in the grit and grime of criminal lowlifes kicked up his spirits.

That's when a voice in a dark corner of the room rang out.

"Jack Frost...Well, ah'll be damned," mumbled a man leaning back in his chair behind a table. He had a small crowd of bodyguards standing around him. Tooth saw he was carving a block of wood with a knife. "Comin' a wee bit early, arnae ye?"

As Jack neared the man's table situated in the back of the room, he let go of Tooth and discreetly pulled a gun out of one of the bodyguards' holsters. He then quickly slipped it into his belt.

"Hello Hue," Jack addressed the man and flashed a grin.

Jack was smiling. _Smiling. _Tooth couldn't believe it. His perfect teeth lined up handsomely against his pale lips and the brightness nearly blinded her. She really wanted him to turn so she could faint with happiness.

It's just...too bad it wasn't for her_–_and it was _SO _not the time to think like that!

Tooth fisted a hand into her skirt as the heavily accented voice spoke up. She couldn't see his face due to the lack of lighting in this one corner.

"You miss me?"

"Miss ye?" the man scoffed. "Ye devil, ye cost me thirteen men last time ye showed yer face in–" He stopped when his eyes fell on Tooth.

He spotted the green plant behind her ear and raised an eyebrow.

"What business ye have with me?" he asked slowly.

Tooth suddenly felt Jack's hand press against her back. She tensed up but then he pushed her forward slightly.

"Show him the clover," he mumbled under his breath. Tooth shakily reached up and pulled the green stem from behind her ear. When she showed it to the group, the man stopped his carving and counted the leaves.

He then nodded.

"Aye...this conversation's not fer th' whole room." Then with a rise of his fingerless glove, the man gestured his posse to move.

"A business matter, lads!" he called out then he got up and beckoned the two into his office. As the man's bodyguards dispersed, Jack and Tooth followed him into a smaller room in the back.

...

_Inside the Leprechaun's Den, 9:27 am_

Tooth gulped and narrowed her eyes. She twirled the tiny stalk in her fingers.

She already figured out that 'Hue' or whatever his name was, was the boss in charge, the _Leprechaun_ no doubt. When he was comfortably sitting in his chair at his computer desk, he spoke up again. She still couldn't see his face because the only light came from a lamp on his desk and it was twisted downwards.

"Sae," Hue spoke to Tooth as Jack closed the door behind her, "Ye want a new identity?"

Tooth's eyes widened and looked down at the clover.

"W...Is that what this means?" she asked as she lifted it up to catch some light. The silhouette of Hue's head tilted.

"Ye mean ye didnae know comin' in ta ma den?" he asked coyly and Tooth felt a shiver creep up her neck. She shot Jack a suspicious gaze as he came to stand ahead of her. When Hue saw Jack ignore her and cross his arms, he smirked.

"Ahh...tryin' to play th' part of th' handsome, mysterious hero, are ye?"

Jack narrowed his eyes into slits but didn't reply. So Hue chuckled and continued.

"Is that why ye enter in ta ma tournaments and kill off all ma men? To impress th' lassies? How dae ye think 'at makes me feel, knowin' ahm short a good supply fer th' upcomin' season?"

Jack gritted her teeth.

"Well then, get new ones," and Jack raised a hand above his head dismissively. "I'm not even here for that anyway."

"Well, obviously. It canae be fer another fight since all th' men are still shakin' in their boots..." Then he eyed Tooth. "Sae it must be because of th' wee lass over there."

Tooth fisted her hands at her sides but otherwise stood straight and alert. Hue flashed her a smirk.

"Th' name's Hubert, madam," he said coyly, nodding his head to her, but she wasn't about to show him any fear. Tooth narrowed her eyes cautiously.

"A-Aren't leprechauns supposed to be _Irish?_" she mumbled loudly and Hue rose his eyebrows at her bravery to speak. He grinned devilishly as he pointed his block of carving wood at her.

"Keen ears, dearie," he continued to speak in his thick, Scottish accent, "But th' men here wouldnae know th' difference anyway. Heh, ye ever dance with a Scotsman before?"

But she clenched her teeth and didn't reply back. Jack averted Hue's attention with an unchanging glare. He took a step forward.

"You want me to enter as a contender again?" Jack asked but the man scoffed.

"_Again?_" he said. "Ha, ye'll run me oot ma bloody business with all th' bets th' men make!"

Hue then moved out of the chair and around the desk. He walked into the only light above Jack, finally illuminating his face.

"Yer good, lad," he said, "but _too_ good."

That's when Tooth saw his face.

Hue had a deep voice but when the light hit him, she realised he was only like...a _teenager_. Maybe a few years younger than her and Jack, he was probably nineteen. He was taller than Jack by a head and was slender from what she could tell by his dark, ruddy jeans, sweater, and trench coat. He had fair skin and rosy cheeks sprinkled with freckles. And when he scratched his hand into his thick curly red hair, she caught his mischievous (though somewhat bloodshot) blue eyes land on Jack.

"Ye'ver gonna tell me where ye learned those moves?" he asked but Jack frowned. All his cheekiness washed away instantly.

Touchy subjects were better left untouched.

"You ever gonna let me get on with this business transaction?" Jack bit out and Hue crossed his arms.

"Ye got th' money?"

Jack crossed his arms too. "Why the hell would I march in here if I didn't?"

Hue paused for a second before he sighed heavily and moved to lean against his desk. He then looked down to calculate on Jack's request. Meanwhile, Tooth exhaled through her nose anxiously, waiting for his answer. So that's why Jack wanted them to come here. She gulped as the room feel silent until finally after a while, Hue glared back down at Jack.

"Hae ye...found anythin' of ma brothers?" he asked instead of answering.

Jack stared at Hue sternly, his brown irises boring into the Scotsman's blue ones. He then shook his head.

Hue didn't say anything but Tooth knew from his stiff posture that he was disappointed. He started carving his block of wood again as he concentrated on it vehemently. Hue began to shake his head.

"They're still oot there somewhere. And ah canae do what ye dae," he muttered darkly but Jack was unfazed. "Remember with ye..._background_, yer ma best chance at findin' them. Ah canae lose them like ah did ma sis–"

"You don't have to say," Jack cut him off starkly and Hue looked up at him. Jack nodded. "I told you. Anything on the name 'DunBroch' that shows up and I'll track it."

Hue stopped carving. He chucked the block of wood on his desk and when he turned back around, he looked over at Tooth and lifted his eyebrows.

"Nae Jack, dae me one better," he offered and that's when Tooth noticed...Jack's back stiffen slightly.

"What?" he growled but he watched as Hue (not so discreetly) pressed a button under the ledge of his desk. A red light came on from the ceiling and as Hue blew a low whistle, his office door opened.

Tooth and Jack whipped their heads around to find several of Hue's bodyguards, maybe more than ten, quietly move into the room. As they circled the two, Hue flipped his knife in one hand before he continued.

"Let's play a game, ah know ye like games, Jack," he said, wrinkling his freckled nose. "It's called 'Get Away With Murder'. A set o' pranks ah used to play it with ma brothers and ma sister when we were wee lambs. But since ahm a grown man now–"

"Pfft, _hardly,_" Jack scoffed and Hue stepped up to Jack. He stared down the shorter man with a dark look.

"Donae come in here at nine in th' morn and expect ta be treated like th' prince ye are after dark," he bit out. "_'He that winna be ruled by the rudder maun be ruled by the rock.'"_

Jack lifted an eyebrow.

"Ancient wisdom?" Jack said coyly as he flexed his right hand.

"Nae, a highlander's warnin'," and Hue narrowed his eyes, "Sae th' rules of th' game hae changed since then."

Jack then flicked his brown eyes at Tooth's dress before he brought it back to the redhead.

"What do we need to do?"

"Not 'we', just ye," Hue pointed his knife at Jack. "Ah'll give th' lass new prints, a passport, an entirely new fabricated identity...but first ye gotta knock down more men than th' record?"

Jack lifted his eyebrows briefly.

"That's it?" he asked and Tooth couldn't believe that didn't faze him. "Well, what's the record?"

Hue grinned. "Whatever yer record was before."

Jack frowned but after a moment...he finally smirked.

"Eight," he stated and Hue gave a one-shoulder shrug. "Fine," he said, "eight."

'_EIGHT?!_' Tooth snapped in her head. Jack knocked out eight men in a circle!? But she couldn't relax on the thought as Hue suddenly signaled the men to move in on them.

When she stepped back cautiously, Jack huffed tiredly and stepped around Hue to stand in front of Tooth. As he backed into her slowly, Tooth subconsciously lifted a timid hand to place on his shoulder. Jack looked up at the younger redhead and found him lifting an eyebrow at the princess.

"Pretty lass, ain't ye?" he teased with a smirk and Tooth glared annoyingly. She hated when men eyed girls like a toy so she stood her ground defiantly...but she would admit though that she didn't like that he was still holding his knife and twirling it playfully. Jack narrowed his eyes.

"No names, remember?" Jack said starkly but all Hue did was chuckle and shrug again.

That's when several of the men behind her chuckled to themselves and began to mumble softly. They were speaking in Malay so Jack couldn't understand but Tooth's ears were ready for the listening.

_(Malay) "She must be his prize,"_ they teased darkly as they checked her out.

"_Can't blame him,"_ another chuckled. Tooth squeezed her hands into her fist into her dress and the other one into Jack's shirt.

"C_ute little ethnic thing like her, I'd take her for a ride t–ARGH!_"

Tooth growled angrily and removed her foot from between his legs. Several men froze, stunned but suspicious that she even knew what they were saying. When he fell to the floor holding himself, Tooth bent down to give him a dirty look. She gritted her teeth.

"Not even if we were the last two people on _earth_," she spat. When she pulled back up and turned her head, she found Hue giving her a surprised look.

Jack had his eyebrows lifted and she shrugged, sending him a beatific smile. She shrugged as if to say _'what?'_ but the other men didn't find it as funny and they turned her attitude around.

Suddenly, one of the other men moved forward and wrapped his arm around her neck.

Tooth's mouth flew open–

But Jack pulled out his gun and clicked the safety off so fast, the guy's bearded face turned pale. Jack's gaze was lethal as he pointed it right between his eyes.

"Let her _go_," he ordered callously just as another man beside Tooth started patting his pants.

_(Malay) "H-Hey! He stole my gun!"_ he growled but he and the others were still nervous. Tooth's captor unconsciously tightened his hold around Tooth's neck. She panicked.

"Jack!"

And he actually pulled the trigger.

But when the click went off, no bullet was fired.

Jack pulled it back instantly and gritted his teeth. He checked the rounds...it wasn't loaded!

The man who owned the gun suddenly turned red with anger.

_(Malay) "It wasn't full?!" _he spat, "_T-That red-haired bastard gave me a blank!_" And as he spoke, the rest of Hue's men checked their own guns (which he had just given them new this morning) to find them empty of bullets too.

They glared at their boss, but Hue shrugged as he twirled his knife.

"Ahh th' black market," then he shot a cheeky look at Jack. "Such a mistrustin' business, aye Jack?"

The other men growled and as Tooth's captor shoved her away, they all advanced on both Hue and Jack. They didn't like to be conned out by a skinny nineteen-year old. Hue raised his hands.

"Calm yerselves, lads!" he grinned darkly and Jack backed up to stand beside him. He sent them a cold look before his gaze flew to Toothiana across the short space of the room. He narrowed his brown eyes at her.

"You see the shit you put me through?" he said and Tooth snapped.

"The shit _I _put you through?!"

"Yeah," Jack spat as the men finally surrounded him and the taller redhead. Jack's fingers twitched, "Now I've got to do it the hard way."

And a second later, he threw a straight punch at the guy on his side with the back end of the empty gun.

"Oi!" Hue shouted. "It's too early fer shite like 'at, Frost!"

And the next thing Tooth knew, all the men were throwing themselves at Hue and Jack and the entire brawl became of flurry of fists, grunts, and dark clothes.

She balled her fists at her sides as she heard the two laugh.

"ARGH MEN!" she fumed and screamed when one of Hue's men was high kicked (by Jack) into the wall beside her. She couldn't _believe _Jack was showing emotion _here _of all places!

Hue placed his knife between his teeth as he fought his own hired help. He chortled at Tooth's comment despite the chaos that was going on.

"Jack!" he cried as he kicked two of his own men in the gut. "Where's 'at finesse ah keep hearin' aboot?!"

A bodyguard hit Jack in the back with a barstool but when the brunette recovered instantly, he kicked the guy down. Tooth almost yelled out to him when another guy suddenly appeared behind him and grabbed both his shoulders but Jack reacted quickly and twisted downwards. Jack laughed.

"It's right here, Hue!" he yelled back and when he twisted back up around to face the other goon, the guy had managed to pull his polo over his head and down his sleeves. Jack caught the ends of his sleeves at the last second and held onto it tightly as he moved forward to kick the guy in the stomach.

"Argh!" When the guy bent in pain, Jack twisted the length of his shirt's sleeve around the guy's neck and spun him into his chest. Hue saw the move and laughed out loud.

"Hah! There's Jacky fer ya fellas!" he commented to his 'buddies' and Jack smirked when another thug moved in to get him. Tooth's mouth fell open as Jack simply kicked him in the shin and when the thug threw a punch, Jack twisted his other sleeve around the idiot's arm. For kicks, Jack threw an elbow strike at the guy who was still trapped against his chest. He then twisted the final length of his shirt around the second thug's neck and tied them both together. The two hobbled awkwardly in their contorted knot and growled angrily but couldn't get to Jack.

When he stepped away from them, Jack laughed and showcased it to Hubert.

"You wanna do the honors?" he shouted over the noise and Hue swooped in to punch both men in the face. Then each turned back to the rest.

After that, the fight lasted about fifty more seconds.

All of Hue's hired help ended up holding their sides and leaning on the walls. They didn't try to fight back again – everything about Jack Frost was still true. The guy was virtually untouchable and while Jack rubbed his eye and smirked, Hue sported a split lip and wiped the blood away with a knuckle.

Both were breathing heavily, trying to catch their breath as the adrenaline began to wear off.

"Ahh, ma Da woulda been proud..." he chuckled as he looked at Toothiana's shaking form. She was the only person who still looked presentable in the whole room. Jack flexed his fingers and turned to stare at Tooth.

"See the mess you caused," he grumbled before he ran a hand through his hair stressfully.

"ARE YOU INSANE?!" Tooth screeched and her voice was high from embarrassment. She was trying not to entertain the fact that Jack was shirtless and his (dyed) brown hair was striking against his maple eyes and pale, white skin. He looked like he was made of marble to her and could be the muse for a modelling agency. So instead, she averted her eyes to the crumpled men, cheeks pink and sputtering.

"IT WASN'T...AND I...WH–_No!_ NO!" When she landed on the one she'd kicked in the balls, Tooth pointed heatedly. "It was _his_ fault so don't you DARE blame me, Jack! Now go put on a shirt!"

Wait...

_...what?_

Tooth snapped her mouth shut as her face grew hot. She wanted to ground to swallow her up as both men eyed her.

That last part wasn't meant to be said out loud.

_'TOOTH! How could you...and they...but he–__GAH!__' _Her mind couldn't take it.

Tooth frustratingly turned and kicked another guy in the nuts beside her. When he cried out in more pain, she crossed her arms like a stubborn princess. "Well?! Hurry up! YOU'RE BLINDING EVERYONE!"

Jack rolled his eyes at her less-than-polite request and moved to his backpack while Hubert wiped his brow and laughed.

"Ye got lucky, Jack. Ah like her," he pointed out and Tooth squeezed her arms more tightly around her as the wind from the AC blew against her.

When she huffed angrily, her blue-green feathered earrings rustled under her curling hair. She kept staring at Jack's back, feeling like a freaking pervert but she couldn't help it – he had that slim, toned body of a competitive swimmer! And where did he get that long scar from near his torso?

Jack huffed pointedly as he pulled out another shirt, a dark blue, cotton shirt and buttoned up the front. He stopped when there were only two left, exposing his throat again before he quickly shoved the length of it inside his pants.

"You really shouldn't," he muttered as he rolled up the sleeves the way he seemed to liked it and Tooth chose to ignore that comment as she inwardly fainted. She couldn't tell a _soul_ how much she'd just loved seeing him get all brute-strength-perfect-body-smooth-pale-skin-shirt less on her...even though she was probably sure it was splashed all across her face.

Tooth decided that was THE LAST time she entered a bar with Jack.

As her skin was fighting down a flush, Hue smirked at Jack's comment. Then finally, Hue gestured at both of them to walk over to his desk.

"Alrigh', fine come on," he sighed. "Let's get this done with before she castrates all ma men...She's almost as bad as ye, Frost." Hue then turned to his men in the room.

_(Malay) "Oi! Ye lot get oot! Jack's done playin' with ye __fer th' day. Only Kwong an' Tai ah need!"_ he barked and they somehow understood through his accent and left the room in pain. The men that Jack had tied around with his shirt stumbled out awkwardly until only two of Hue's new bodyguards stepped in and stayed.

A brief flash of frustrated relief washed over Jack's features before he walked toward the desk and on nervous toes, Tooth crossed the room to join. Hue's men locked the room's door and went back to their own business in a small group by the corner, leaving their boss to his customers.

As Hue went around his desk and started up his systems, Jack crossed his arms, serious as always. Tooth tried to ignore him and stared down at Hue's desk distractedly.

She saw what looked like an old photograph of Hue and who were probably his other siblings. He had two other identical brothers and they looked like they were about four in the picture. In the corner was written _Hubert, Harris, Hamish._ That's when she also noticed there was an older girl with bright, red curls holding the triplets all from behind.

Tooth frowned with a sinking feeling in her gut. They looked like a beautiful family...and Jack was looking for them for him.

She cast her gaze up at him quickly before he saw it. Jack didn't look like he wanted to talk as he moved to brood silently against the wall, eyeing the other men across the room. He was flexing his fingers and Tooth bounced her flats nervously.

She couldn't lie...Jack's new dark, button-down shirt looked better on him. He looked business-casual (minus the leather glove he still wore on his left hand) and blue was definitely still his color. Then Hubert spoke.

"Sae how dae ye want it?" he asked and she blinked.

"Sorry?"

Hue lifted his head with a handsome smirk, eyeing her teasingly through his bright, ginger hair. "Ye wanna be from here? Same age? New occupation? Yer a student nae doubt?"

Tooth nodded. "Y-Yeah," she replied and Hue began typing with a crease in his forehead.

"Donae worry. Ah'll come up with th' rest...Sae ye want ta be married ta him?"

"Um..." Tooth rubbed her neck, feeling uncomfortable but when she threw brooding Jack one more gaze, she glared. "No, thank you."

And when Hue flicked his clear, blue eyes at Jack (of who was rubbing an eye and not paying attention to either of them at the moment), the redhead chuckled darkly.

"Aye, ah can see why."

After a moment the two fell into comfortable silence and Tooth shot him a surprisingly small (but still nervous) smile. She vaguely wondered why this guy was all the way out here in Southeast Asia, doing shady business with a bunch of crooked men who probably didn't understand what he said half the time. She also really wanted to ask him about the girl in the photograph and his lost siblings since she felt like she would...be able to relate at the current moment.

But as he placed the knife between his teeth and kept typing, Tooth thought it was better _not_ to ask.

...

_Hue's desk, 9:54 am_

By the time they were finished and she had a whole new identity, the princess had kicked the other two bodyguards in the nuts.

They hadn't been in the room earlier so they unfortunately didn't get the memo. Jack had already figured it out – when you provoked Tooth's size, strength, or gender, she fought back like a kitten.

As Hue and Jack stood at the side of the desk mumbling to each other under their breaths, Tooth leaned against it as she read her new passport and stared at her picture.

Hubert was _really_ good at making illegal IDs...it looked authentic and he'd done it so fast! Granted she had to practice writing a new signature for a couple of minutes, still, she couldn't believe she had a fake identity. She never had one before and had always heard of girls getting ones to go clubbing early but she didn't like the club scene so never entertained the idea of needing a fake ID.

But she gulped bravely anyway. So long as this got her one step closer to finding BT and stopping Pitch, she'd be someone new.

That's when Jack's head suddenly appeared by hers. He was glaring down at her passport and her picture. Tooth scrunched her face as she read it again. She fiddled with her feathered earring thoughtfully and fidgeted on the balls of her feet.

"Are you sure 'Katie Chopra' suits me?" she said out loud.

Hubert popped up on her other side. He had finished carving his block of wood and was holding the figurine of a bear.

"It's nae supposed ta, lass" he said. "Th' more generic th' name, th' better."

And Jack nodded to her but she frowned.

"H...How did you do it?" she asked. Hue shrugged.

"Got a lad in th' Auss who designed th' program," he mumbled thoughtfully. "A damned 'ElectronicAlpha: Status-Type Existence Rewriter Egg' he calls it...but like shite ah care whit it is, so long as it gives me business. Ah donae even know if th' man's real."

And Tooth nodded but thought it unsettling that Hue would trust a guy to make him a passport design program when he didn't even know who he was. As she thought to herself, Hue tilted his head at the brunette.

"Oi Jack, ye didnae ask. Dae ye want a new one too?"

Jack reached into his pocket and pulled out his IDs.

"You think I need it?" he asked cautiously as Hue took the IDs and stared down at them. After a moment he shook his head, his red curls bouncing across his forehead and handed it back to Jack. Tooth tried to read Jack's ID as it passed her line of vision, but it moved too quickly and all she got was the surname.

_Bennett._

She raised her eyebrows delicately but neither boys noticed her.

"Nae, they're still good...but hang on," Hue said before he quickly reached over to his desk and pulled out three more passports. He handed them to Jack.

"Two blanks an' another ghost just in case those fail," Hue mumbled and Jack nodded, "Punch ma star code on a phone and get ta th' nearest online printer an' ah'll send ye new IDs alrigh'?" He then glared. "But ah'd really rather ye donae."

Jack rolled his eyes before he paid Hue the amount for the Tooth's new IDs. As he unlatched his police belt from his waist and gave it to the redhead, Jack spoke again.

"You know what to do with this, right?" Jack was referring to it while Tooth looked on nervously.

'_Why is he giving him his weapon belt?'_ she wondered, but she didn't ask because the two seemed to understand the connection. Hue nodded firmly as he lifted it.

"Donae worry. Ah'll get a guy ta dae it," he said, then as Tooth turned, Hubert reached out and took hold of her wrist. She spun nervously to face him unsure of what to do before he pressed his lips to her hand.

"It was a pleasure, _Kat_," he mumbled charmingly with a smirk. Tooth gulped but she shot him a nervous smile regardless before she slipped out of his hold and moved to Jack. He let her rush pass him to the door.

When he turned to look at Hue, Jack gave him a hard look and the Scotsman returned the gesture.

"Okay now get th' hell oot ma shop. Ah hae more men comin' in an' ah donae want ye gettin' in ta a figh' with th' girlie here."

And Jack nodded and put his IDs and hers into his pocket, then he put on his backpack.

He didn't say goodbye or thank you, just abruptly turning to the door but Hue didn't seem to mind since he'd already turned too. They were strictly business partners...and yet as Jack took hold of the doorknob–

_Thunk!_

Hue's carving knife suddenly lodged into a poster on the door beside his head.

Jack spun to glare at the Scot but Hue was glaring back.

"Ah learned_ that_ from ma sister, sae donae forget our deal...Ma sister may be dead, but ah still want ma brothers _found, _Frost_._"

And Jack spared him one more glance before he opened the door and stepped outside.

Tooth decided not to look back as she followed. That was the last time she ever saw Hue again.

...

_Main bar room, 9:59 am_

Jack and Tooth moved across the large bar room again.

"We've only got half an hour, so let's get moving," Jack muttered.

"I _know_, Jack," she bit out and she followed close behind him. They both had different things on their minds so neither said a word to each other after as they moved quickly across the dirty floor, while Jack was busy scanning the room and its men.

That's when someone reached out and grabbed Tooth's hand and yanked her back. She yelped.

Jack spun and found one of the bar's regulars drunkenly pulling the princess close to him. Tooth shuddered disgustingly.

_(Viet) _"_Hey lady, how about a dance?_" he breathed and she felt herself go stiff until he pulled her gold chain around her neck.

That's when Tooth reacted.

She lifted his other hand and bit down on his grubby wrist with her white teeth. As he pulled away in pain, Tooth jumped back just as Jack moved in around her and threw a right hook to his jaw. When the guy wheezed out and stumbled back, Jack nudged him with a gloved finger and pushed him down back into his chair.

"_Hey!_" another guy yelled and moved up to throw his own hook at Jack. Jack caught it swiftly and twisted it sideways before he slammed the guy's head onto a nearby long table and dragged him across it. The guys head smashed into all the glasses on top and he cried in pain as Jack pushed him off the end.

Jack sighed angrily and ran a hand through his hair before he spun to face the room.

Suddenly he sensed something and when a shadow moved out of the corner of his eye, Jack reacted on instinct.

"_**Wh-Who is...no how did he...Wait, where'd he go?...Dammit where'd that bastard va–CRACK!" **_

As the memory faded, Jack's palms lifted themselves from the ears of the man – the same man who'd gotten up again to move at Tooth. He'd just snapped the man's neck and the guy fell like a heavy sack to the floor. The body made a dull _thud _when it hit the bar floor and everyone in the room fell deathly silent. _No one _had seen that coming and as Jack rubbed his eye with a frustrated snarl, Tooth just stood there with the rest of the guys completely still.

Jack exhaled a controlled breath but was unsure of what had just happened. When he turned to face Tooth, the men moved away from her general area and pretended to ignore the two of them. Toothiana's eyes were wide as saucers and she had her hands clasped around her mouth...she'd seen Jack shoot men but never...

Her heart skipped a beat and a wave of nausea passed through her face. She didn't say a word but Jack could see her feathered earrings shake at her earlobes and he frowned.

"That wasn't..." he mumbled and looked away. He missed when Tooth shook her head.

He didn't...didn't (somehow against her moral judgement)...need to apologize to her for that.

He then gave the room one more scan with his brown eyes before he calmly walked back to her and pushed the princess towards the door. She was about to move away from his touch when she stopped herself. Jack looked placid, but something about the way his fingers touched her arm...told her different. He looked like something had just disturbed him and he couldn't stay.

"What is i–" Tooth started to say but Jack cut her off.

_"Keep walking,_" he muttered under his breath as he pretended to look ahead. "_Don't look back._"

_"W-Why?_" she breathed. Her heart rattled in her chest as they glided to the door.

_"Because one of Pitch's men is here_," he whispered. "_And I think he just recognized your necklace_."

And indeed, as Tooth looked down horrifically, the rainbow feathers from her chain were jumping on the outside of her dress.

Neither realised that the time was already 10:03 am.

* * *

Chapter soundtrack: "Welcome To The Family" - Avenged Sevenfold (Thanx Finmonster fer helpin' me with ma Scottish dialogue! Fin's currently writing an amazing _Brave-HTTYD _crossover called 'The Dragon and the Bow')**  
**


	12. Burnin' Rubber and Chasin' Wind

**The Ho Chi Minh City in this fic is not the same as the real one so don't try to scale it. (: Also thanx to my _dear papa_ for pointers (unknowingly) since he apparently did similar stunts when he was my age and a so-called 'badass' lol. Enjoy! What would a spy thriller be without one of these?**

* * *

_Alley of the Leprechaun's Den,_ **10:03 am**

"Take my backpack."

"Oof!"

A second later, Jack kicked the steel door to the hangout open and flew out. Tooth wheezed out a breath and staggered to catch his pack awkwardly when he rammed it into her chest. A second later they were both holding the balcony's railing looking down. A strong breeze flew up into their faces.

Tooth shivered even though the warm, morning sun was shining down on her skin. She was thankful to be out in the light again and not in the closed quarters again...but the thought of an assassin (especially Pitch's) being right behind them, completely took over her senses. She gripped Jack's backpack tightly and opened her mouth.

"T-That plane's gate will close _at least_ five minutes before it leaves," she muttered under her breath hotly as he looked down at all the parked cars. "We need to get there before 10:30, b-but from all the way here we'll never..._Shit_, Jack_. _What do we–"

Jack suddenly flipped over the railing.

"OH!" Tooth cried out and instinctively reached out her hand to catch him but Jack was already falling thirty feet to a small open space between the cars. When he reached the ground he landed perfectly in a silent crouch and Toothiana's mouth flew open, wondering how his combat boots didn't make a sound. Then he pulled up and bolted to the left.

"Jack?!" she cried. "JACK!" When he didn't look back, she ran a hand through her bangs angrily and shrugged on his backpack. In a rush, she clambered down the fire escape while she muttered to herself that he was a 'damn crazy legs' and would no way in_ hell_ take his more...creative route down to the ground.

Tooth was huffing by the time she got onto the pavement and looked back at the door. Any second now Pitch's hitman was going to kick that door open too and fire shots or shoot a net at her like they did in those crazy tv shows to catch her–**Vrrrrm!**

**10: 04 am**

Tooth spun her head and found Jack coming to a stop in front of her...on a sleek black motorcycle. Her mouth fell open as he pulled back on the right throttle to give it a little more gas but when she didn't immediately move, he glared at her and lifted the helmet he was holding.

"_Princess!_" he barked. "Come _on!"_

Tooth shakily moved around a parked silver car and stepped up to the front of the slim motorcycle. Its engine was loud, like the deep purr from a lion and it looked _expensive_. Her eyes bugged out of her sockets.

"Whe...Stop stealing people's–D-Do you even _know_ how to drive it?!"

Jack narrowed his eyes at her as he steadied the motorcycle on one foot.

"Of course," he spat. "I'm a professional."

She couldn't help it. "Yeah, a professional pain in my–"**Vrrrm!**

Tooth jumped when Jack pulled back hard on the throttle. He sent her a violent look.

"Get. _ON._" he snapped and she gritted her teeth but moved quickly to his side. She lifted her skirt slightly and threw a slender leg over it. As she settled in the seat behind him and fiddled with the strap under her chin, he spoke.

"Have you ever ridden on one before?" he asked over the bike's surprisingly loud muffler. She shook her head.

"N-No." She _had_ always wished she would get to one day...and somehow knowing that Jack could and she would get hold him...well, that just made her day. You know, minus the possible pursuit that might take place. Tooth really hoped it wouldn't.

As she slowly clasped her arms in front of him, he grabbed both her wrists.

"Do you _want_ to fall off?" he griped and pulled her hands over the other so far until her palms were pressed right around his waist. He then let go and took hold of the bike again.

"When I lean, lean with me to create the streamline for the wind," he instructed. "And if I brake hard, you can use a free hand to push against the fuel tank behind to hold yourself up, alright?"

None of that Tooth heard since her head was preparing for its first bike ride. She would only go on instinct. That's when Jack finally revved the engine angrily. He was ready to shift the gears with his left foot and let go of the brake when–

"WAIT!"

Jack nearly jumped out of his skin and jerked the vehicle with his right foot on the back brake.

**10:05 am**

He glared sideways at her.

"What?!"

"Hang on! My dress–" And he felt her let go of him and move awkwardly on the side. Jack's eyes widened slightly.

"What are y–"

"I-It was hanging on the side and I–"

"Are you kidding me right now?!"

"Just-just gimme a sec before you sta–"

Her blue-green skirt was moving wildly in her shaky hands as she figured out how to untangle it from the side.

"Princess!"

"I almost got it! AND GOD, _YOU'RE_ THE ONE WHO G–"

"PRINCESS! _CAN WE GO?!"_

"YES YOU CAN GO NOW!"

"YES?!"

"YES! GO!"

And Jack rolled his eyes and lifted his foot back onto the bike.

A second later he switched the gear, let go of both brakes, and he pulled back on the right throttle and they tore off!

**10: 05: 21**

He drove the bike in the opposite direction they had walked in, heading toward the other end of the short alley whilst twisting slightly between the tight spaces of the cars. But as they reached the end of the alley–

_Boom!_

Tooth was too nervous on her first-ever motorcycle ride to want to move, but Jack twisted his head slightly over his shoulder.

A well-built man in a black uniform was leaning over the steel railing. His black helmet with its yellow visor was already covering his head.  
Pitch's goon had just run out onto the balcony and was looking down for them on the ground, but as his head snapped in their direction, they had already reached the end of alley and Jack turned sharply to the right.

**10: 05: 39**

"Ohh!" Tooth squealed and went stiff as a tree trunk. They were flying down a new, _tighter_, street filled with people's junk they usually kept in their backyards.

Jack decelerated slightly on the front brake as he expertly swerved around crates, mangy dogs, broken appliances, car parts, and at one point...a line of chicken. Meanwhile, Tooth kept moaning at high pitch every time she saw something too close at them for comfort.

"Jack, careful. _Careful!_"

"Princess, I _need_ to focus!" he griped over the sound of the engine and managed to avoid clipping a twisted piece of chicken wire. With deep inhale, Jack squinted past the wind in his brown eyes and leaned more over the dashboard. But as he assessed the short distance left till the end of the street–

Two gunshots went off over their heads and spooked him the tiniest bit off focus. Both he and Tooth looked up, the wind rushing over their faces.

**10: 05: 52**

Against the high morning sun, the black silhouette of Pitch's hitman was parkouring across the roofs on their right, expertly leaping across the edges and trying to catch up with them.

Tooth's magenta-coloured eyes grew wide.

"HE'S GOT A GUN!" she screamed and Jack snapped his head forward again. He growled under his breath.

"Keep your visor down!" he yelled but she shook her head even though he couldn't see it.

"I–!" But the rest of her words flew from her mouth as Jack finally reached the end of the street and jerked the black bike to the left.

When they turned out of sight, the hitman moved proactively.

He made a quick look down at the next gap in the two small apartments and immediately leaped down in between both walls. Using a thick water pipe, he spun and flipped down effortlessly, then made a run into the tight street the princess and her bodyguard–

_(Vietnamese ) _"_No, wait stop! Who are–THWACK!_"

But not before he punched a guy in the face and stole his red motorcycle.

He then sped off down the street after Jack and Tooth!

**10: 06: 21**

Jack knew this new street – it was the same one they'd walked down to find the alley for Hue's hangout. He shot his eyes glaringly around, making mental assessments.

Positive: It was near empty, since it was still morning and in a shady part of the city so he had more command of the road.  
Negative: it was empty. So that meant a clear shot for the friend trying to whack him off from behind.

"H-How did he know me by my necklace?!" Tooth cried trying to blink back tears which she told herself were strictly from the wind in her face. Jack was already accelerating again as they sped down the empty, grungy road.

"How else did Pitch know where and who to kidnap?" he said loudly over the blistering wind. His rapped his pale fingers anxiously over the handle bar as the cool air blew his brown bangs up and away from his forehead. "He no doubt had a profile on you! Everything his men needed to know about how to spot you, including what you wear!"

Tooth nervously peeked over her left shoulder to look behind. She was terrified of falling off.

"I think we lost him!" she said before she turned back around and leaned forward more against Jack's back. "B-But let's _never_ go down tight alleys again okay?!"

**10: 06: 37**

When Jack almost clipped the first car they passed on the road, Tooth cried out and threw herself to the left as he swerved out of its way.

"TOO CLOSE!" she yelled. "D-Don't do that, I'm scared!"And Jack looked down briefly before he looked back up again.

"Princess, see the clock on the dashboard here! What's the time?" he called over the wind and Tooth snapped her head down over his shoulder to stare at the little circular instrument.

"Ten o' six!" And she felt him nod.

"Okay, so I need you to do something for me! I want you to _keep_ _your eyes down_ on it and keep telling me the time as I drive!"

When she didn't respond, Jack turned his head slightly to his left.

"OKAY?"

**10: 06: 57**

"Y-Yeah, yeah!" she cried and Tooth didn't lift her eyes once from it. She thought his idea was smart – keeping her head down while he drove distracted her so she wouldn't get scared and watch all the horrible things they could potentially crash into.

"Jack, i-it's ten o' seven now!"

"Good!" he said and when he felt the motorcycle jerking tightly through several more cars now showing up at the end of the street, he gritted his teeth.

"And princess, don't lock your hips!" Jack cried and she lifted her eyes briefly. He continued as they nearly clipped a car on the right. "Move _with_ the bike! Otherwise you'll restrict my movements!"

"W–" She choked when it felt like a bug flew into her mouth!

"I feel it as you're holding me! Get more loose or I can't lean side-to-side!"

Somehow Tooth found that sentence awkward but as her cheeks grew a pretty glow of light pink, she narrowed her eyes firmly on the digital clock again.

"S-Sorry!"

And she eased her tense spine and tried to pretend her lower half and the bike were moving together like a snake. It helped alot.

Suddenly–

"Gah!"

**10: 07: 18**

Tooth leaned more into Jack's back, trying to duck her head. Two more gunshots went off behind them!

Jack snarled and turned the bike sharply right when the street ended. When the slope went upward, Jack pulled the left throttle and switched the gear quickly into 2nd before tearing up the incline. The new street had more moderate morning traffic, and as Jack pulled back on the right throttle more fervently, he and Tooth moved further away from the sketchy part of Ho Chi Minh and back into relatively safer districts.

Jack drove with the wind like they were one. He was fluid and at ease trying to catch the air currents around the speeding motorcycle while Tooth just held on tightly. Her legs were cramping from how tightly she was gripping the bike's sides but it pumped adrenaline through her veins.

**10: 08: 03**

A loud screech of tires was heard down behind them. Jack flit his eyes at the side-view mirror. A flash of black on red zipped passed the glass and disappeared behind several cars.

Jack frowned. The guy had stolen a motorcycle too!

The damn guy was fast, probably more of a trained driver than shooter – Jack noticed that when he realised his aim with a rifle wasn't as accurate as his control with the red motorcycle.

But Jack wasn't scared, this guy wasn't nearly as good. They were already over the peak of the street while he was still trying to weave past cars to get to them.

**10: 08: 45**

"H-How far are we from the airport?!" Tooth yelled over the sounds of the bike's powerful engine and the angry drivers honking at them for flipping them off. The back windshield of a van beside them shattered when the bullet whizzed through and Tooth snapped her head sideways while Jack pulled a magnificent 87° merge into the second lane before following with a sharp twist onto a partially empty sidewalk. The horns and traffic brakes went off in a frenzy.

**10: 09: 03**

Tooth yelped when she felt the motorcycle go over the curb in a large _dun! _and they were essentially (illegally) whizzing down the side street. Jack sped way ahead now of the traffic and more importantly, the assassin who was essentially trying to kill him off.

**10: 09: 17**

He clenched his teeth behind his closed jaw.

'_They won't try to kill __her__,' _he surmised in his head. _'They kept her in that holding room for over twelve hours...which meant that Pitch needs her ali–'_

"OLD LADY!" Tooth cried and Jack blinked out of his thoughts.

**10: 09: 29**

At the last second, his subconscious kicked in and he jerked the bike swiftly to the left of the sidewalk – avoiding the elderly woman that Tooth was pointing at – and caught a lucky break...a morning delivery truck with a ramp levelled against its trunk was just in front of him.

Jack revved the engine and drove up it like classic spy-movie would allow. Too bad Tooth didn't enjoy being a part of it as the gunshots flew past them in loud pangs.  
When they landed on the roof of a parked car in front of it, Jack expertly rode down the front of its windshield and merged into the road.

At the next red light they got, he turned right at its corner and tore down a new slope.

**10: 10: 01**

Jack glared at Tooth's curls under her helmet in the mirror. "I thought I told you to look down!" he shouted hotly.

"And I thought you were a _professional!_"

"Will you just let me drive!?"

"Ten-ten!"

And he squeezed the right hand brake to slow down the front wheel as the slope grew more narrow. The sun was hot against their backs as they drove away from it.

**10: 10: 22**

Jack flicked his brown eyes at every street corner, trying to map out Ho Chi Minh City's gridlock in his head. He scanned it street-for-street the night before on the (now) discarded netbook and they _needed_ to get to the main overpass that would drive them west across the main downtown district to the airport – it was the quickest way to get there, especially since they only had less than _twenty minutes_ to get checked for their flight and take off!

Jack looked up, wind still flying around his hair.

Down far ahead was Ho Chi Minh's downtown area, stretched out across the Western horizon like San Francisco. To his right, another road began to start and make a ramp that lead to the higher platforms of this district. But he didn't need to take it, he needed the street that came underneath it two lights away in order to reach the highway entrance r–

"Ten-eleven!" Tooth shouted anxiously.

Jack suddenly sensed something and twisted his head over his right shoulder.

Out of nowhere, Pitch's assassin appeared on the red motorcycle driving up the ramp...before he turned the vehicle slightly and crashed it through the thin barrier and fell over the short ledge behind them.

As he lifted the gun, Jack whipped his head back towards the road and reacted.

**10: 11: 27**

With a flit to the mirrors, he squeezed the motorcycle into the left lane and hid them behind a giant bus. Tooth, who didn't know what was happening beforehand, jumped in her seat when bullets were heard hitting the bus beside her.

**10: 11: 36**

She really hated this downward slope of the road and hoped Jack would get on flat land soon because at the speed he was going and the way her body slid down the seat until she was pressed _right up_ against him made her heart race – and for once, not in the good way!

**10: 11: 49**

"Damn, he's actually quick," Jack gritted through his set jaw and eyed the road again. Tooth spoke against his shoulder, her eyes still on the clock.

"W-Why don't you take the highway?!" she cried over the wind, heart battering in her chest like a scared bird. "Won't we get there faster?!"

Suddenly a loud boom was heard on the other side of the bus – it sounded like a fist was pounding the side of it.

**10: 12: 06**

"He can get a clearer shot of his if we risk it!" Jack harked over the pounding. "I can blur his trajectory if we stick to the tight and narrow. That's my specialty anyway!"

"But we don't have time for that, Jack!" she argued. "That flight to Moscow leaves–"

"Argh, I know, princess!"

That's when the bus honked and drove ahead when there was more space...when it moved, they saw both saw that the assassin was in the third lane.

Seeing the opening, the latter revved his engine and swooped in.

**10: 12: 23**

He was in the next lane over now, _heart-poundingly_ close, but he didn't risk moving in too much – he knew from Jack's skill at the bar that the kid could probably throw a ninja kick while on a motorcycle and disable him...but with the Princess he was immobile. So the hitman set a short distance between them and raised his weapon.

Meanwhile Jack was inwardly frantic.

He couldn't speed up and drive ahead. As well, he was already in the last lane on the right and couldn't squeeze into its tiny shoulder line because of the concrete barrier, and there were no way to go left into the other lane without throwing himself and Tooth into the hitman's motorcycle.

It was cutting close, too close!

**10: 12: 29**

Tooth squirmed in her seat, suddenly panicking. The assassin lifted his gun, and tried to get a good line of Jack.

When he thought he did, he narrowed his eyes–

**10: 12: 30**

The princess' helmet flew out of nowhere and hit him in the head!

The momentum of the throw knocked him sideways and his gun fell as he swerved in the lane trying to recover. Jack saw it and took the open window.

**10: 12: 35**

Pulling the throttle, he manoeuvred into the guy's lane and bending over to one side slightly, he reached into his boot and pulled out a concealed knife.

Jack pulled up quickly and with a cold look, he stabbed it into the man's thigh before slipped their motorcycle ahead of him, and gunning into the third lane.

**10: 12: 49**

"You did it!" Tooth cheered as they weaved in and out of the traffic but Jack glared at her coldly through the side mirror.

"Eyes on the _clock!"_ he growled and she sent him shocked look.

"Oh okay, _thanks_ princess!" she sarcastically said to herself and Jack looked down at the clock himself to ignore her.

**10: 13: 00**

The second traffic light came no sooner than Jack had seen it. With it turned green, he flipped off the car in front of him swiftly and turned right into the highway's entrance ramp. Since they'd incapacitated the hitman, he decided that they _could_ use the expressway and hopefully cut out time to get to the airport.

The wind roared through the street as the accelerator ramp of the highway wound underneath the ramp overhead. The cool air was powerful and blew relief into both Jack and Tooth's hair. He smirked and flexed his fingers.

Now he could really get some fun going.

**10: 13: 18**

With a rev, he turned slightly to eye Tooth through his peripheral vision.

"We're on the highway! So hang on, I'm gonna go faster!" And he felt Tooth tense slightly.

"You mean this _isn't_ going fast?!" she sputtered disbelievingly. How could she!? Her eyes had been on the dashboard the whole time and Jack was going well over the speed limit enough to get them killed, never mind arrested!

**10: 13: 39**

Jack scoffed.

"This was only 2nd gear!" he said loudly before he narrowed his eyes and looked ahead as the curve of the ramp was nearing to an end before the major lanes came. "So LOOK DOWN!"

And a second later, he pulled the left handbrake, shifted the gear into _3__rd_ with his left boot, and popped a quick wheelie before he pulled back on the throttle. Then they were really tearing through!

**10: 13: 51**

Jack's heartbeat was as steady as a drum. Tooth's was a jackhammer waiting to tear down all of Vietnam!

"OHH MY GOD!" Tooth cried but the wind ripped the scream from her mouth. Her hair was billowing wildly behind her and her bare arms developed goosebumps from the cold wind that rushed around them.

**10: 14: 04**

As they entered onto the highway, the ramp overhead vanished and the bright sky engulfed their vision. The highway was a flat land of six or more lanes curving around the high cliff of the district before it opened up onto a large bridge going over all the streets below.

Tooth eyed it astonishingly for a second before Jack swerved the motorcycle and she forced her head to lean down again to stare the clock. Too afraid to watch his hellish skill, she felt him weave left then right, then right again, and what almost felt like a complete circle! He was really cutting their time as he passed all the highway traffic.

**10: 15: 11**

But so was the recovered assassin.

With a loud rev of the engine, Tooth lifted her head slightly and looked into Jack's mirrors. She saw the red motorcycle and her heart nearly collapsed in on itself.

"HE'S BACK!" she cried and Jack spared the mirror a quick glance before he sighed angrily.

**10: 15: 21**

He didn't do anything more as he kept weaving and trying to outdrive his bike rival. When it came to high twists and limited steering, speed was the only thing you could control with your vehicle, Jack knew. And he'd managed to do it well...until the traffic began to grow congested up ahead and he was forced to slow slightly–

And unfortunately, Pitch's man found an opportunity to squeeze ahead to them!

**10: 16: 07**

He didn't have his gun anymore since it dropped on the road and wasn't carrying another since he didn't think he was on duty today until he saw the princess and had to do his job. All he could now was improvise and stop their bike.

**10: 16: 18**

As Jack was fleeting his brown irises across the cars for wider paces to squeeze, the black-clad assassin still chasing them from behind held Jack's bloodied knife. He couldn't feel his left leg but tread on like a stone-cold killer would. That's when he noticed, the princess' bodyguard rev the engine once more and look to the left – he was going to slip into the shoulder beside the fast lane.

**10: 16: 41**

Pitch's man hit the throttle and decided copy them but in the opposite shoulder on the far right. Jack saw him out of the corner and tried to speed up as he and Tooth squeezed themselves between the cars and the concrete barrier.

**10: 16: 49**

The two were neck and neck before the assassin suddenly drove faster than Jack and went ahead of them. Jack eyed him cautiously but missed him raising the knife when his view was blocked by a large truck next to their bike.

That's when the assassin threw the knife...at the window of the truck!

When the glass shattered, the truck driver reacted instantly and began to turn the truck slightly away. Jack's eyes widened slightly as he looked up at the giant vehicle.

It began swerving closer toward the concrete barrier. It was going to squeeze them!

**10: 16: 55**

"Oh! OH NO!" Tooth couldn't help but see as her heart dropped into her stomach. But Jack switched back into the second gear and eased on the throttle. He gritted his teeth.

**10: 16: 59**

He slowed the motorcycle cautiously and quickly threw out his right hand and pounded on the metal body of the truck.

The thundering echo it made over the sound of the bike and the traffic made the truck driver panic again and when he saw the black motorcycle in his side view mirror, he honked angrily as he properly moved the truck back into the fast lane.

When the path was clear Jack pulled back on the gas and they shot forward to pass the truck–but the assassin (who had moved into the third lane) already had plans for them.

The second they reappeared ahead of him, he hit the bike's gas and rammed into the jeep on their right!

**10: 17: 13**

The jeep swerved into them. Tooth jerked violently with the motorcycle and her hand slipped from its hold on Jack's waist. She fell to the right and reached out to the jeep to steady herself...which was not the best idea since it was slowing down abruptly. But with the fear gripping her, she wasn't letting go!

"J-JACK!" she screamed and Jack turned his head to see what was wrong.

**10: 17: 32**

Tooth's hair was flying behind her and her back was arched precariously over the right side of the bike...but her arm kept stretching out farther as the speed of their bike and the slowing of the jeep was pulling her in different directions. Her eyes were wide with fear and her mouth kept shouting his name.

A real wave of panic passed over his face before he switched gears and pulled forward on the throttle to slow down the front wheel even more. He then pulled his arm out behind him and grabbed her around the waist.

**10: 17: 39**

"LET GO!" he barked and with a painful cry, he twisted his arm back into him and pulled her back onto bike.

**10: 17: 43**

Tooth choked back a terrified cry as she gripped her shaky fingers into the front of his blue shirt like a cobra, then he gunned the engine and outdrove the jeep.

The inexperienced driver of the jeep half-spun into a stop behind them, and it blocked all the oncoming traffic behind it...including the hitman on his bike.

Jack hit the brakes and twisted the motorcycle around in the space it created on the road. The traffic exploded into a chorus of honks and shouting.

**10: 18: 05**

He faced the black-cloaked killer from the distance. As people stepped out of their cars frantically and started dialling for cops and ambulances, the two had a silent stare down. Tooth shook violently behind him and kept her eyes fixed on the bike's clock.

"Ten-eighteen!"

The hitman had no more weapons on him to shoot or throw at them and as he revved his engine, preparing to twist around the traffic jam, Jack snapped his head around him and realised...the highway had already come to an approaching exit ramp and was sloping down into a bridge over several roofs of the downtown district buildings. He could see the airport and its wide expanse of land far ahead past the congested streets.

Bingo!

**10: 18: 37**

So with a rev of his own engine's bike, Jack grit his teeth at the assassin before he lifted his boot off the ground and twisted the bike around again. He only liked highly-skilled driving killers when they were _him._ As the hitman was moving around the sideways jeep and the crammed highway traffic, Jack took to the exit ramp at increasing speed.

**10: 18: 46**

The downward slope of the highway bridge's lurched Tooth's insides while she and Jack leaned more over the bike dashboard. She squeezed her eyes shut as the wind (now in her face without the helmet), nearly blew her cheeks off. Jack was otherwise unaware or unfazed by the powerful torrent of air.

When they weaved through several more cars and got on the exit ramp, he clicked the gear in _2__nd_ and they entered the main streets again–

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Jack shouted as he manoeuvred the bike on the immediate sidewalk again. It was much faster than taking the road, and they nearly whizzed past oncoming traffic when the lights were red. Tooth choked back a gasp each time they hit a curb and she felt the motorcycle move into an intersection.

**10: 19: 13**

Jack snarled.

"This is STILL too long!" he growled and suddenly heard and saw the hitman reappear in the mirrors again.

"W-We'll never get to Moscow!" Tooth cried and yelped as she felt them clip a fruit vendor and his crates on the right.

**10: 19: 21**

"Yes we will! Just let me do my job!" Jack barked as he read each street sign that flashed passed, and mapped out the city grid in his head. They were seven more intersections away from the major turnoff into the airport's terminal bridge.

"Ten-nineteen!"

That's when he Jack saw Phạm Ngũ Lão street – they were at the city's main centre and he remembered it had a major park with stone stairs that hit every level of the district...including some that lead to platform overlooking building roofs!

"HANG ON!" Jack said and as he drowned out the incoming engine of the red motorcycle behind them, Jack made a sharp intake of breath, he squinted his eyes as he spotted on set of stairs appearing.

**10: 20: 02**

He blinked behind his narrowed eyelids–

_**Jack swerved left to avoid the Italian polizia cars that suddenly appeared at the next traffic light. He sped onto the sidewalk and flew under the orange lamplights to give him light in the dark. When a narrow staircase leading up to a terrace came up on the left, Jack smirked and twisted the motorbike abruptly. Then he was fiercely riding up the tight tunnel and vanished–**_

**10: 20: 21**

Jack pressed the brake for the back wheel with his boot and turned right...they drove down the stairs!

**10: 20: 30**

Tooth cried out not expecting to bounce so violently. She and Jack pulled up their spines as he expertly twisted the black motorcycle down the steps. People screamed and threw themselves out of his way until he reached the bottom and tore across the cement walkway. They flew passed a fountain where the pigeons were all drinking and the violent burst of wind they brought with them sent all the birds into the air.

Meanwhile, the hitman was still hot in pursuit.

**10: 20: 51**

Jack drove across the city square before he reached another set of stairs all the way at the other end. Tooth dared to peek and realised...it was narrow and probably about a hundred steps to the highest balconies in the districts!

**10: 20: 59**

She shook her head, her newly-highlighted hair catching the brilliant morning sun.

"No, Jack! NO!" she argued but she was unconsciously wrapping her arms tighter around him. Jack gritted his teeth.

He didn't say anything and went for it.

Jack pulled the motorcycle into a wheelie and caught the stairs at an angle...then the wheels spun and the two were riding up the small steps at a sloped angle.

**10: 21: 14**

"I know where this leads!" he cried over the bouncing and the shouts of the people moving on it.

"Where the roofs?!" she joked but stopped.

The hitman followed them without fear up the stairs behind him.

"Time!" Jack barked.

"Ten-tw-twenty one!" she screamed.

"And that's why we're going there!"

And when they reached the highest platform seconds later Jack turned the motorcycle left and suddenly the bike flew off the ledge...and onto the flat roofs of the buildings!

**10: 21: 20**

With controlled breathing, he concentrated on keeping the wheels on steady beams and concrete surfaces. Surprisingly, the gaps between the downtown's buildings were short and Jack found he didn't need to worry about...improvising.

Too bad the hitman could too!

He followed them just as easy and soon it began a _real_ spy chase, driving from roof-to-roof, while the rest of the normal world below didn't even know.

**10: 21: 47**

Both men gunned, twisted, and hopped across every several building roof but the hitman was gaining more speed because he found easier, less risky paths to take than Jack did.

**10: 22: 09**

The airport terminals were looming in the distance far below but Jack had a hard time scanning for buildings to leap closer back to the ground to while also avoiding running into the hitman.

It looked like it was almost the end of the two of them.

"Ten-twenty two! W-We won't make it in time!" Tooth cried but Jack suddenly hit the throttle. He didn't slow down and Tooth lifted her head at the perfect time to see why.

**10: 22: 22**

There was a giant flat slab of a concrete roof a few more meters away. Beyond was a _long _metal crane that stretched from its ledge all the way down into the parking complex of the airport! If reached that roof and Jack hopped it, they could essentially drove straight down into the airport – it would _completely_ toss out the need for the streets or the last bit of the expressway since both were too far anyway...but there was one issue.

It was a _huge _dr_o_p between the two buildings. Even if they drove off and made it, because of the violent landing, they'd crash and die in a wonderful explosion!

**10: 22: 34**

Tooth shook her head again and again.

"No, Jack! NO, JACK! STOP I-IT'S...WE WON'T MAKE THAT! WE WON'T!" she kept screaming but he didn't listen.

He narrowed his eyes and calmed his heartbeat and then...he kicked the gear into _3__rd_ one more time and...pulled back on the throttle.

_Hard_.

**10: 22: 37**

They shot forward so fast Tooth jerked back before squeezing the oxygen out of Jack's slim torso.

A second later...

**10: 22: 38**

Jack drove them off the edge.

**10: 22: 39**

At first it the bike soared across the gap, then gravity pulled the vehicle down in a gripping curve. It was all Tooth could do not to scream as her shut her eyes. She leaned heavily against Jack and pressed her face into his back.

"W-WE'RE GONNA DIE!" she choked and with the way the motorcycle lurched forward toward the roof of the building it looked that way.

**10: 22: 41**

And then...

**10: 22: 42**

Jack, for the first time, lifted his ungloved hand off the handle. He moved it away from the bike and caught an air current that passed beside them.

**10: 22: 44**

Then he felt his fingertips twitch with a familiar electricity he hadn't used in a while.

**10: 22: 45**

Tooth felt her hair whip around her face.

A huge burst of cold wind blew around her legs and prickled her bare arms as they fell through the air. In the next heartbeat, something like an invisible current pushed the back end of the bike and leveled out the bike.

As the strong cool breeze suddenly began to die away, Jack pulled up as hard as he could on the handle brakes and her heart stopped...the front wheel landed on the roof, and the wind had cushioned their fall!

**10: 22: 50**

Jack pulled back on the right throttle quickly and the front wheel spun forward, bringing the whole motorcycle across the ledge. And after he made a tight spin, Jack hit the brakes and faced the opposite ledge they'd just jumped.

The black-clad assassin suddenly appeared at the other roof at the exact moment he stopped the bike, his shadow casting down on them from the higher rooftop. But unlike Jack, the hitman rammed hard on his motorcycle brakes and stopped short of going over the edge.

He stared down at Jack briskly, wondering how the two had made such a jump...and _survived _that landing, since it was virtually impossible if you calculate speed and distance.

But he didn't want to risk it and turned around, driving away and out of Jack's sight for good.

When the imminent threat gone, Jack huffed deeply but continued to glare at the spot the hitman used to be. Tooth lifted her head cautiously and looked down around them. She swallowed a dry lump in her throat as he turned the bike slowly around to face the west but when he hit the brakes again to rub his eye, Tooth pulled back slightly.

She stared at the back of Jack's head, and her face grew pale with fear. She licked her trembling lips and listened to the whistling of the breeze around her, tickling her feathered earrings.

"H..._How did we do that_?"

Jack didn't answer.

He was staring down at the airport with a hard look while the high wind around the rooftops swirled around them happily.

**10: 23: 25**

"He's gone. That's all that matters. Now hang on," he finally mumbled and she leaned back onto him instantly. Then he pulled the left hand brake and shifted the gear into _2__nd_ and drove the motorcycle off the short, easy distance onto the construction crane and used its downward slope to drive the rest of the distance to the airport parking lot.

When the black motorcycle reached the end, Jack expertly hopped it onto a nearby parked van to land on the ground. Then he drove the bike towards the second terminal and down into the parking lot. He hopped its large curb discreetly, slipping ahead of the entrance toll booth and speeding up to the third level to park.

**10: 25: 09**

They only had _five _minutes.

They still needed to find their gate, check in, and get on that plane.

...

"Sir, the target still has the tooth. But they plan to head to Moscow shortly."

"Are you certain?"

"Yes, I confirmed her shouts over the pursuit. They're getting on the flight 7."

"...Very well." Pitch Black moved away from the multiple computer screens as the hitman cleared out his status. The other screens were still lit up, giving him eyes on all his other operations that were taking place. His eyes briefly landed on Tatiana and his scientists hovering over her unconscious body before he looked away.

When Pitch turned back his attention to the other men in the room, he grinned. His hands were behind his back as usual.

As he did, the shadows casted on the walls from the one light bulb in the centre of the ceiling, extended at his will. The men said nothing and tried not to react as Pitch pushed them over their feet and up the front of their uniforms. When Pitch finished walking, he was standing in the middle of the cold, concrete room.

"Well, I guess the chase continues," he drawled out and he leaned down to speak directly to one particular man sitting in the only chair in the room.

The man, dressed in a dark red uniform jerked wildly against his binds, angry and afraid but Pitch raised a long, grey hand. When he waved it in the man's face, the man froze fearfully.

"Tsk tsk, pardon my rude manners, kind gentleman," Pitch said with twisted eyes, yellow eyes, glinting in the lightbulb above. His hollow cheekbones were cast in shadow and made him look, gaunt and frightful. "I forgot about our time. Now then..."

And the terrorist immediately moved his long, bony finger to the man's throat.

The man in the red uniform couldn't do anything as Pitch touched the skin of his fingertip to his exposed neck.

Pitch's touch created a chain reaction, a stimulus across the man's brain that triggered the fear emotion. He screamed in hysterics as Pitch's finger continued to pry open his sensory cortex.

Everything..._everything_ from his worst nightmares to his darkest confessions, bubbled to the surface behind his shut eyelids. Like an icy wind, the negative, horror feelings prickled all across his skin. All Pitch did was smirk. He then leaned down and placed his hand on the man's shoulder as the latter continued to convulse.

"Trust me, friend," he spoke softly with an almost pitiful smile. "This gets worse the longer I will it to run its course, so unless you want such extreme discomfort..." And Pitch bent down to the shell of the man's ear and grinned as he looked ahead.

"I want to you to tell me everything you can about 'finding your little friends.'"

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang!" – Blue Stahli **A**** perfect motorcycle chase track IMO ;)**


	13. A Jack of All Trades

_CHAPTER REVAMPED. Haha to answer one of your questions (thanks anon, my sweetie!) I make LOTS of drafts and I can't decide which is better. But it bears absolutely NO effect on the ones to come so if you do choose to come back and read it (and honest I didn't know you guys did come back to - that makes me all fuzzy inside :3) and find it's not what u read before, don't panic. (: Now then... _

**H-How did you all manage to read through the last chapter? :O Haha I love u for surviving to the end! U all get a free ride on Jack's motorcycle. ;D**

* * *

**"But you can skyrocket away from me. And never come back if you find another galaxy."**

* * *

_Tan Son Nhat airport, terminal drop off, 10:26 am_

**_Sreeech!_**

A family taking their luggage out of their van in front of Jack jumped a mile into the air as he savagely braked the motorcycle in front of them.

_(Vietnamese) "Damn tourists!" _the mother snapped but Jack ignored her.

The second he killed the engine, he exhaled intensely and ran his hand through his brown hair to fix the messy, windswept locks. He felt Tooth's body (and his), still shaking slightly from the motion of the drive.

Toothiana immediately leapt off the motorcycle and scrambled wobbly to stand. Her heart was threatening to explode in her chest as she leaned on a nearby column.

"Never, _never_, again with _you_," she choked.

Jack rolled his eyes as he leaned the bike on a foot.

"Oh okay, well _thanks _Jack," he imitated her earlier quip but she was still yapping to herself.

"A-And we just..._flew_ over that ledge! And I swear to god, we should've...but we didn't because you–"

She suddenly snapped back to him and pointed a finger in his face.

"Do you not remember how many guys I just kicked between the legs? You've been on that list way before any of them, buddy!"

Jack blinked and his head twitched.

"Wh...Can you get out of my face?" Jack snapped and swatted her hand away from his face and just looked at her.

The princess' new hair was sticking out in different directions and her dress was slightly twisted and hanging more to one side. As she fixed herself, Jack kicked down the bike stand and moved off the bike with more grace.

"Trust me," Jack said seriously as he quickly went around the bike wiping away prints, "that drive's really nothing compared to what else I've done."

Somehow that threw off her focus...so was also seeing the way his hair was still wisping to one side. Tooth fell silent as she waited impatiently, hopping stressfully on the balls of her feet. She tried to think about the flight, Pitch's other hitman, and quickly looked down at her necklace.

_'Good, it's still hiding in my shirt!' _she huffed inwardly. _'REALLY Tooth, no more slip-ups like–'_

Jack snapped his fingers to get her attention.

Tooth looked back at him, still fidgeting.

"W-What?"

"Come _on,_ your highness!" he sighed as he raised his hand out for his backpack. "Where's your sense of urgency?!"

And Tooth finally blinked.

"Oh no!"

She hurriedly took it off and handed it back to him. He eyed her quickly as he put it on. Then he moved around the bike and rushed into the airport, but Toothiana spared the awesome, black motorcycle one more look.

One day, if she was lucky, she'd get to drive one herself.

...

_Flight 7 non-stop to Moscow, 10:34 am_

Tooth thought about the lonely bike one last time as she said 'excuse me' for the umpteenth time walking down the aisle of the plane.

She still couldn't believe their damn luck.

_'Maybe it was the luck of the Leprechaun,' _she teased herself before the thought of Hubert DunBroch left an _ick_ in the back of her throat.

Still, as the women already on the plane eyed her dress (and more, her bodyguard), Tooth was grateful to Jack's wonderful, natural talent for speed and control.

She wondered if all spies were really as good and as fast as Jack on motorcycles. She really doubted that they could pull off what he did, especially with their land on that last building. It was a miracle.

It was also pretty hot.

She didn't dare turn her head behind to face him as her neck grew warm at the thought.

_'Bad, Tooth. BAD!'_

The plane was quite large, sitting three at each window and four in the centre, but the aisles were tight. After they got to their seats near the back on the left, Tooth settled in her seat next to the window while Jack put his backpack in the overhead cabin. He then moved his small carryon underneath his feet as he settled beside her in the middle seat. Meanwhile, the older gentleman who was already sitting in his seat on the end was already dozing off.

Feeling claustrophobic beside Jack's blue-clad form, Toothiana moved her eyes down to the new carryon he had brought with him.

It was strange and she still couldn't believe how he ended up with it.

* * *

_"There!"_

_When they got to the final check-in gate, no one else was around (having already boarded), and the attendant was busy finishing up. _

_But seeing the wide, open glass doors and knowing the deep tunnel led to the Flight 7 at the end, made the two of them absolutely relieved. __Tooth sighed gratefully and Jack's shoulders visibly unwound._

_They actually, freaking made it!_

_As Jack moved ahead of her to show their tickets, Tooth clutched her side painfully and coughed._

_'Holy crap, we did it!' she mentally cheered as she finally got near them._

_"You almost cut it very close there," the woman said with a placid smile. She then leaned behind her chair and presented a small blue carryon bag. "But luckily a security guard found it for you and told us to hold it until the flight left. Sorry about the convenience, sir."_

_Tooth shot the two of them a bewildered look as Jack took the mysterious carryon with a small smile._

_"Tell him thank you for me," Jack said politely and when she nodded, she let them go on ahead into the tunnel._

_When they were out of earshot, Tooth walked beside him and stared down at the new bag._

_"When did you have that?" she whispered. "What security guard?"_

_Jack looked down at her before looking ahead again._

_"Remember when I gave Hue my belt?" he muttered under his breath and lifted it slightly. "It's in here."_

_Her eyes grew wide._

_"It is!?" she hissed suddenly horrified. "Oh my god, Jack!"_

_Jack had all his weapons as they were now going to board the plane... and he didn't even look nervous. In fact, he looked more relieved._

_"Hue has men working for him everywhere. He can smuggle whatever he wants through here," he said then fell silent as they neared the stewardess at the plane entrance._

_Jack lifted their tickets and after several cardiac-intensive seconds, she smiled at the two of them._

_She then let Tooth, Jack, and his bag full of espionage arsenals through._

* * *

Tooth rubbed her head at the disturbing thought.

Oy vey.

"Remember," Jack muttered down into her ear. His cool breath sent a shiver across her skin. "One of Pitch's men is on this plane. And so is whoever he's going to follow."

Tooth's heart skipped a beat. Her mouth fell open as she looked at the chair in front of her blindly.

She'd forgotten.

She'd completely forgotten.

"I-I...I for–"

"So make sure your necklace is hidden alright?" Jack narrowed his eyes down at her throat before he pulled away. "We can't risk another chase, especially here."

And Tooth's tan fingers instantly shot up to her father's chain. She grasped it shakily and gulped, thankful it was beneath the fabric of her dress.

Jack then reached up to fiddle with the AC over his head. When it blew a stronger wind into his face, he flexed the fingers of his ungloved hand and rubbed an eye.

Several minutes later, the plane attendants did their safety routine, everyone signed off their passports, and the plane took off on schedule. Jack and Tooth didn't fully relax until they were sure they off the ground and the seatbelt lights went off.

When they did, Toothiana sighed gratefully and unbuckled herself.

She looked out of the window and stared down at the city with great wonder.

She still loved flying with all her heart, and despite the apparent danger that had surrounded her in the past forty-eight hours, she couldn't help herself. The puffy clouds and the morning sun shining down on the craziest city she'd ever been in, took over her senses.

"How long 'till we land?" she finally turned to ask Jack.

He was staring ahead in deep thought and she almost didn't think he'd reply, until his brown eyes suddenly flit to her face.

"Seven hours and twenty minutes, so we'll get there after dark." And she nodded with a frown before she looked out the window again.

"Right," she mumbled. "It's winter for the rest of the world."

Just because it was warm and like summer down in Southeast Asia during December, didn't mean Russia was the same. As the AC blew cold air down onto Tooth, she shivered in her dress at the thought. She was supposed to be _away_ from all this winter weather – that's why she came home during school break, to soak in the hot rays on the island...

When the man sitting next to Jack coughed and got up to use the washroom, Jack took the opportunity to reach under his seat to pull out his carryon.

As he unzipped it, he knitted his dark eyebrows together. Tooth watched him go through it, seeing the edge of the gun holster and all his belongings. When he lifted his collapsible baton slightly and rubbed its steel side, she bit her lip.

"How are you going to get that through security once we land?" she asked.

Jack quickly looked around before silently pulling at the bag's inside lining and showed her a tear in the corner. She saw what looked like a weird rubber sheer lining the bag all around.

"It's a metal silencer," he explained. "Hue laces all his carryons with it so it counters the magnetic pulse and doesn't go off under the detectors."

Tooth blinked, impressed at the ingenuity.

"Where'd he learn that?" she asked. And as Jack checked the pockets, he raised an eyebrow.

"From me."

He missed as Tooth shot him a small smile.

As she settled more into her seat, feeling a bit more comfortable with him beside her than she'd ever felt (but would never admit), she began to let her mind wander for bit. Eventually she began patting her hands on her thighs to some invisible beat in her head.

"Ouch!" she jumped and Jack stopped abruptly to look down at her.

"What?" he asked as he narrowed his eyes.

Tooth clenched her jaw nervously as she bent over slightly and began to (self-consciously) lift the skirt of her dress. She grimaced when she saw that a long trail of blood had started running down her leg, but luckily it hadn't seeped into the dark hue of the fabric yet.

A deep cut on the side of her right leg started to sting.

"I must have gotten it on the bike," she muttered. She _did_ tell Jack to be careful weaving through all the crap they passed on the sidewalks. She wanted to scowl, but somehow ended up nervously glancing at him instead.

Jack was always annoyed when she slowed him down.

'_Just perfect,' _she lamented in her head. _'Now I'll have to go to the washroom a–'_

"Get up," Jack said in a low voice and when she looked at up him, he was moving something from the carryon into his pocket. Jack sent her hard look as he shoved his bag under his seat again.

"Well?" he urged and she stood up and moved around him to stand in the aisle. When he got up to follow, she immediately moved down the aisle to the back where the last of the washrooms were. She heard him speak into her ear.

"Get inside one but leave the door unlocked," he instructed. "Then count to seven and open it."

He then pulled away quickly and Tooth nodded slowly, continuing to walk with a smile so they didn't attract attention to each other. When they both reached the empty washrooms at the back, Jack and Tooth went in opposite doors simultaneously and shut their doors.

...

_1: 47 pm_

As soon as Tooth closed the door, she leaned against it and listened. The whooshing of the AC and the plane's engine brought a strange calm to her senses.

She then sighed and pushed her dark, brown hair behind an ear.

"One...two..." she began counting.

She knew why Jack had wanted her to do that – the average attention span of people was seven seconds, so–

"...six...seven," and as soon as she pulled open the door, Jack's form silently slipped passed the aisle and into her stall like a ghost. Tooth saw his washroom door was somehow locked on 'occupied'. She guessed he broke it or did _something_ so people would think they were being separately used.

When she locked the washroom and turned, Toothiana nearly gasped at the closeness of his body. The restroom was small before but now it was like _impossibly_ small.

The small lights overhead gave off a dark shadow over Jack's smooth, pale features and she found her heartbeat skipping.

_'God, he's handsome,'_ she thought achingly while her throat grew dry.

Jack moved around her and pointed to the sink with his leather glove.

"Sit on it," he said and he rolled up the blue sleeves of his shirt more until they were above his elbows. He put the toilet seat down and sat on top of it in front of her. Tooth nodded, by this time more inclined to listen him and not question his motives since he'd already saved her life more than twice this morning.

She even told him so as she hefted herself on the sink's tiny edge.

"Uh...th-thank you for saving my l–"

"Don't."

She blushed with a frown.

_'Well, at least he can't say I didn't try,'_ she growled in her head.

That's when Tooth squeaked.

Goosebumps exploded all across her skin as Jack's hands found her leg.

_'Woah there!'_ she squealed in her head as a blush came on her face. He took the end of her dress and slowly lifted it up, mentally assessing the severity of her cut.

As he pulled the skirt higher, his scowl grew deeper.

He couldn't believe he'd managed to get her injured. He was normally very careful with motorcycle chases when they involved carrying others – he'd done it before for other people and they never sustained a cut from his sideswipes. If they did, it was usually because they got hit with a bullet, and the princess had managed to stop that_ herself_ from happening. Knowing that this was because of a simple miscalculation in steering really pissed him off.

Meanwhile, Tooth's face grew warmer the longer Jack lifted her skirt and more intense his gaze was on her legs. When his fingers took hold of her skin, the familiar icy electric jolt made her weak in the legs. She coughed softly to ignore the slight tremors in her fingers and to get his attention.

When he looked up at her, Toothiana rubbed her neck and pointedly avoided his maple-colored gaze.

"A-Are you gonna tell me what you're doing anytime soon?" she tried to joke but it came out more pathetic than sassy.

Jack blinked and rolled his eyes before he dropped the end of her dress atop her thigh. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a few cotton balls, some medicine and the bandages.

Tooth blinked down as he produced them to her.

"From Hue?" she guessed and he nodded.

"He's a dick, but at least he's always considerate of his best customers."

That's when Jack took hold of her right leg again, grasping it in his large palm from underneath, and to tended to it.

Tooth didn't say anything and just watched...dazed and speechless.

She could've easily done all this herself had he just handed her the stuff and let her go to the washroom alone...but then she guessed that after her bail on him earlier in the subway, he probably didn't want to have her pull another crackass run for help. But it wasn't really a guess.

That really _was_ what he actually thought she'd do. So hoo-ha.

Tooth frowned. She watched as he concentrated deeply underneath the dim lighting, wiping the blood away and cleaning the cut above her knee. Every time his fingers brushed a little higher than she felt they were supposed to, her entire body shivered with a warm flutter in her stomach.

He was a _really_ good bodyguard.

Despite all the cold looks, the rude comments, the sass, the fighting, and the screaming she did while he was 'protecting her life', she couldn't help it...her body was beginning to relax itself against the mirror behind her, heartbeat slowing from its usual erratic thumping whenever he was around.

Toothiana willed a tiny smile down serenely at him in the quiet, tiny space around them.

She felt for the first time since they met, being up in the air like this...like she could actually breathe again.

She kept looking at Jack, inwardly adoring the light sprinkle of freckles he had on his cheeks and across his nose. They were nearly impossible to see against his pale white skin but she memorized the pattern anyway.

"So..." Tooth dared to speak softly, "how did you find me in the warehouse when no one else could?"

She wanted him to talk her again, but Jack didn't look up as he continued playing doctor.

"I wasn't looking for you, remember? I was looking for Pitch," Jack mumbled, comfortable speaking about it in the tiny room with the wind drowning out their secret to the rest of world.

He then placed a piece of the bandage between his teeth and pulled it open, "I've apparently been searching for him for more than a year...at least that's the last thing I remember when I woke up."

Tooth's smile slipped over her face as her eyebrows scrunched together worriedly.

"What do you mean...'woke up'?"

"Whatever the GUARDIAN program did to me..." he shot her look daring her to laugh at him again for mentioning it.

When she didn't, and actually appeared sincere to him, he continued.

"Whatever they did...it left me stranded in the middle of nowhere with one thought: to stop Pitch Black. And if any of his hired hitmen, the Nightmares, got in my way...Kill them."

Tooth wanted to ask him about what 'being stranded' and where 'the middle of nowhere' could possibly mean, but Jack didn't tell any more.

She frowned at the crown of his hair, counting the flecks of his real white hair beneath the cover of the dye.

He spoke low again when she didn't.

"So that's why I was there, that's why I need to stop him because that's what the old Me had planned to do. It's my only mission left now."

Tooth frowned.

That's why he was so wayward and caught up on every clue, and why he wanted to fly to Russia and help her find her handmaiden...it would all lead back to Pitch and help Jack understand why he lost his memories a year ago.

Tooth felt a strong weight like lead settle in her throat and onto her stomach. Her heart grew heavy too and the more she stared at Jack's hard, serious features, she suddenly felt the need to comfort him. He always made sure she was alright...she wondered when was the last time anyone had ever done the same for him.

_'Probably never,' _she guessed glumly.

But why should she?

She tried not to think about the leather glove under her knee that had punched that glass window, or the intense brown eyes on her skin that shot men at point-blank range. She even tried to ignore the pale fingertips pushing her skirt back up as it fell...and forget how they'd snapped a guy's neck just an hour ago.

And she just knew, she just did.

Tooth tilted her head slightly to the left and looked at the door briefly before she stared at Jack again.

"I...I hope you get your memory back, Jack," she said timidly.

His jaw set tightly but she didn't notice as she sent him a warm smile. "I think I can believe that you were, no, _are_ a good person, if you're trying to stop a terrorist...right?"

It was the tone of her voice that finally made Jack pause to look up at her.

And when he did, the muscles in his face slackened and his eyes slightly widened.

The dim light caught her blonde tresses and her skin and he surveyed the way her dark hair curled against her cheeks and shoulders.

And she was...actually smiling down at him, nervously, but smiling all the same.

Neither were aware that his pupils had dilated slightly.

Jack hadn't been blind the whole time...He _was_ a guy. He knew Tooth was attractive from the moment he saw her.

Jack's hold under her knee hesitated just a fraction, his fingers twitching in their gentle grip. He couldn't help but see how bright and pearly she was, truly trying to be strong in the face of everything he was throwing her into.

And something about that gnawed at his insides.

Tooth couldn't erase the expression on his face. For a second back there he almost looked...nervous. His eyebrows were knitting together and his mouth fell open slightly like he wanted to say something. She leaned slightly to him, curious and willing to invite...but he eventually looked back down, still applying the medicine to her leg.

His eyes hardened at the edges.

"You don't know that," he finally bit out. "Neither of us do. For all we know, I worked for someone _like_ Pitch and he was just the competition I needed to kill off."

Tooth leaned more forward.

"B-But I–"

"_Princess_," he warned and snapped his head up to hers, inches from her face. Jack was frowning but for once, he didn't have that cold squint anymore. His eyes were just wide, serious.

"I mean it," he mumbled. "This is all just a game for someone, and I was a willing pawn. I'm an assassin, that's all...So _don't._"

He faded out and remained silent, locking himself away like he was good at – like he was trained to.

Tooth bit her lip when she felt his palm twitch strongly under her leg, but she looked away.

"So then...what would you have done if I _hadn't_ been the tooth, if I didn't have it on me?" she spoke accusingly as she glared at the floor. "Remember the knife you put in my face? The threat of leaving me there?...That was true?"

Jack answered without hesitation. "No. I still would've protected you."

"Really?" Tooth mumbled as her heart felt like it was beating a little too hard.

Jack nodded firmly as he finished up and dropped his hands away from her. He then clasped his hands in front of him with a serious gaze.

But then he continued.

"You're a princess, after all. I kind of have to."

"Oh," she stopped.

_...I kind of have to._

_'Of course, because once again, the title of Princess Toothiana Hypunjam is more important than ME as an actual person.'_

Jack must've noticed the tension spike in the washroom as he stared her suddenly bleak expression.

He blinked up at her before he (somewhat guiltily) looked away.

He hadn't purposely meant to make that sound awkward...or did he?

"Other than that...are you hurt anywhere else?" he pedaled through for a change in conversation but it completely irked him – he normally _hated_ idle talk, but he kept going anyway.

Tooth fidgeted with her feathered earring. She shook her head numbly.

"Um...no."

Jack flexed his fingers against his fist and scrunched his eyebrows.

"You certain? Because I have a lot more bandages and I don't want you bleeding all over the place."

When her nervous gaze flew over his head, his eyes fell unconsciously onto the blue-green hues of Tooth's dress.

"No really, that was all."

Tooth smiled again nervously but while Jack didn't return it, she was the tiniest overjoyed that he didn't glare or shoot her a cold look.

"Alright," he finally mumbled.

Jack felt like he couldn't breathe in the tight room all of a sudden. Like Toothiana, he protested enclosed, darkened spaces.

With a sigh, he got up and stood to his full height, as his head cast a shadow over her, Tooth gulped tightly and looked down at her cut.

All the blood was gone and she said a large bandage over the ointment-covered gash. When she pushed the dress down and hopped off the sink, he moved to it to wash his hand.

"Th-Thank you, Jack," she mumbled loudly and blushed as he checked himself in the mirror.

"You're welcome," he replied stiffly, avoiding her gaze entirely.

Then with a nod of confirmation, he moved to unlock the washroom door and pulled it open...just as a stewardess walked past the door.

She eyed him absentmindedly at first until she spotted Tooth standing behind him with her cheeks still warm. The woman glared at the two them.

_"This isn't a mile high club,"_ she hissed, obviously suspicious of the fact that two people were in the tiny washroom when it was built for one.

Jack just sent her an exhausted glare before he turned back to stare at Tooth.

He then moved around her.

"Trust me, there is _nothing_ going on between us," he said coldly and stalked down the aisle, all business-like again.

When he was gone, the stewardess went to glare at Tooth. But she stopped and frowned slightly instead.

Tooth's face wasn't at all embarrassed. In fact, the short woman actually looked...crushed.

When Tooth's glassy eyes moved from where Jack was just standing to look at her, her crestfallen gaze told the older woman that maybe they really weren't doing what she'd thought they were.

She gave the (unknown) princess a somber look.

"You all right, sweetheart?" she asked seeing how Tooth's emotions washed all over her face, her cheeks instantly drained of color. But what was Tooth going to say, _'Oh, everything's fine! I just have the biggest crush on this serial killer with amnesia who just stepped on my heart, but it's all good. Do you have any water?' _

No, she really couldn't. Not unless she wanted her tight throat to remind her of how childish she was.

There was no real romance in a spy chase, especially with a guy like Jack.

So instead, Tooth slipped a beautiful smile onto her face, but the woman knew it was forced and too wide to be honest.

"Oh yes, don't worry!" she beamed as she moved to the door. Tooth quickly lifted her skirt and showed her the bandage.

"Honestly, he was just helping me." And the woman looked down, before she turned to the blue-clad man that just left the girl behind. She then turned to stare down at Tooth with a sad smile.

"Oh okay, sorry miss...He's one of those huh?" she said and she let Tooth move around her. Toothiana sent her a look over her shoulder, grateful the woman hadn't pried for more.

"Believe me, he's worse," she said with a weak smile and the woman nodded and they parted ways.

...

_3:24 pm_

After lunch and a lame movie rolled through, Tooth fell asleep in her seat several hours later.

When she leaned her head against the window, the plane went through some turbulence and kept knocking her skull in her sleep. She pulled up many times but kept falling back down until she finally pulled her head all the way to the left and leaned it against her chair.

After a while, she slipped down until her head was leaning against Jack's shoulder.

Jack turned his head slightly at the abrupt touch to his arm.

Since he was taller than her, she was basically using his bicep as a pillow and the edge of his shoulder as a prop, but she otherwise fell deeper into sleep.

Jack grimly creased his forehead.

Her face looked so small and the dark circles under her eyes told him just how exhausted she really was. He had to give her credit. The princess could push and his joke earlier about her being out of her comfort zone really couldn't do her justice.

She was basically a fugitive like him now.

But she wasn't like any of the royal dignitaries he had assumed to be during protection operations...she didn't mind getting uncomfortable and she was humble through and through about everything she was given.

_I hope you get your memory back, Jack._

Jack then frowned.

He remembered her smile...

It peeled away all the tired frustration that coated her face since they first met. Toothiana was always frantic and scared, and angry at the people around her (himself included) because they were controlling her life. She became a stubborn princess with a prissy attitude.

But then he remembered the Vietnamese father with the oil drum and the way she bowed to thank him, and the little boy with the canary...and the fashion students' she cooed over...and his dress she put over her body with excitement.

* * *

_She ran a hand across her cheek and Jack noticed the tear that slipped out._

_"Why is this all happening?" she mumbled behind her fist. "Oh my god, Tat..." She clenched her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut to stop the rest from leaking out._

* * *

Jack suddenly felt like a tight band was wrapping around his ribcage and exhaled harshly through his nostrils.

Unconsciously (albeit bitterly), he was lowering himself in his seat, trying to move away from the princess' head, but it only made him be more at her level.

When he felt her move in her sleep until her ear was resting on his shoulder and her head was in the crook of his neck, Jack bit the inside of his cheek.

He wasn't so callous as to nudge her away when she really needed to sleep – she'd only gotten three hours in the past two days and unlike him, she couldn't go on without rest – but that didn't mean she could use him as pillow.

Jack Frost was still a stranger to her, to everyone around him, and even to himself. He still didn't know why he was a wanted man internationally, when he'd done past criminal activities in multiple continents, and why he could do what he did...including kill people subconsciously.

_I think I can believe that you were, no, are a good person, if you're trying to stop a terrorist...right?_

His skin tingled as her hair tickled his jaw. All his senses were hypersensitive, and he felt more so when she moved around him like he was her fr–

No.

She shouldn't smile at him and he didn't like that he'd...reacted to it.

And she couldn't get attached to him. He wouldn't let her. This wasn't her world.

He wasn't her friend.

But...

He glanced down briefly and memorized her gentle features one last time.

He'd continue to be her bodyguard. He'd continue to protect her until all the hell was over. Then, he could push her back into the light and continue on his own, creeping through the shadows that acted as a shield around her and the rest of the good people in the world.

Jack may be a loose killer but for the moment, he only wanted his moral compass pointed at one man.

Still, this chase was endless. He went in circles and circles for weeks and he...

Jack rubbed his eye thoughtfully and looked down to his boots where he knew his police belt was hiding in the carryon.

Every day, every month, it felt like he was always two steps or five behind the answers.

Eventually, the darkening sky outside the window began to creep over the horizon as they flew north. Tooth was still asleep by the time the stewardess came around with evening blankets and Jack took one and placed it over her. He wasn't cold or tired so didn't need one, but the hours prolonged in silence and sounds of the airplane lulled into his ears. It also didn't help that the old man sitting on his left was snoring too, signifying the calm and peace for these last few hours before the danger started again.

He wouldn't be able to immediately find Pitch's man or _whoever_ he was supposed to track...Everyone looked like a civilian...And it was cold in Russia and Toothiana would get cold in her dress...

Jack's eyelids fell over his eyes.

He then fell into a deep sleep for what felt like the first time in over a week. And dreamed.

"**J-Jack!"**

**He rubbed his eyes with a free hand before pulling it away to look down. His skin was peachy, a healthy glow of what skin should look like.**

"**Come on, Jack!"**

**A voice bounced around the wooded area. Her voice.**

**Jack looked up and looked out across the trees. He heard shoes running away but didn't see any feet, or a figure, or a shadow. He was alone but the same high voice kept calling.**

"**Jack! Come on, t-this isn't...J-Jack don't–"**

**When she screamed, she sounded like she was right beside him. Jack spun and saw a little girl running away from him. Her long, brown hair was billowing behind her as she ran up a steep hill into the sun. **

"**WAIT!" he screamed but when he put out a hand to start running, the glint from the sunset blinded him and he covered his eyes with an arm. **

**When the light died down, she was gone.**

"**J-Jack..." **

**Then, she was there again on the far side of the forest, holding onto a tree trunk. But her face was cast in dark shadow by the tree and blurred out. His heart raced and his cheeks grew cold from the wind that started to blow. **

**That's when he was suddenly standing in the middle of sloping road. He was in a mountain village on the side of the Himalayas. ****A family of sheep herders who had taken him in during his months of wandering, stood outside their house, watching him with knives at their sides.**

The dream was always the same, and as Jack clenched his teeth in his sleep, his head slumped atop Tooth's, using her soft hair as a cushion for his dark dreams.

Tooth meanwhile, was suffering from one of her own.

She had been dreaming about her sisters drinking mango juice when Pitch Black appeared with bat wings, but then the dream flashed into a new sequence.

"_**Has... her highness ever taken you to Ecuador?"**_

_**Bless his soul, the man in the dark red uniform. He was trying to make conversation as they were stationed there for the next ten hours. **_

"_**N-No."**_

_**His fingers twitched on his gun as he stood next to the door of their tiny, beautiful room. From the window, it looked out over the Andes.**_

_**Suddenly, there was a loud bang!**_

"_**NO! A Nightma–"**_

"_**Tulia, move back! BACK–"**_

_**But the door flew open and someone shot bullets around the room. One got her red-clad protector in the leg and when he tried pulling up to get into short, combat with the man in a black suit with yellow goggles coming through the door, the latter lifted his gun shot him in the head.**_

_**"AHH!"**_

_**Then the mysterious stranger spun and the world suddenly went black, like the room had been sucked away by a thick vortex of fabric.**_

_**It got hard to breathe...**_

When the sky outside her window turned dark for the late afternoon winter, the aisle lights of the plane dimmed around them and blanketed them both in a dark shadow.

But both were unaware, as Tooth's erratic breathing matched Jack's fluttering eyelids.

The princess and her bodyguard were trapped in restless sleep while the plane continued to fly them north towards all the disturbing secrets they had yet to uncover, and chilling news they had yet to face.

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "Birds & Boats" – Gregory & the Hawk **  
**

Oh! And sparklevampFTW, bless her heart, made a Youtube playlist with all the songs for each chapter in case anyone actually listens lol. (: The link's in ma profile.


	14. The Russian Chasers

**Get ready. And thanx again as always for enjoying the ride. ;) (Oh sweet lawd, these chapters are getting longer! Someone save me haha.)**

* * *

**"****We're gonna run, nothing can stop us. Even the night that falls all around us."**

* * *

"Sir, I've got a name."

"Have you now?"

The hacker team cross-matched the picture the assassin took with the camera in his helmet to several espionage databases. When they got a match in the wanted section, Pitch smiled.

"My, my..._Jack Frost?"_

Black moved away from the computers. He'd never met the man but with a name like that, a sudden chill went pleasantly down his spine.

"Do you know the legend about Jack Frost, boys?" When no one spoke up, Pitch continued.

"Old European folklore, that's all it is really. They tell the tale of a young lad, a winter spirit who stalks each of us. He is the bringer of snow and cold weather, calls on the Northern wind as a friend and, he loves to play, always wishing to join in other's games…But, oh."

He stopped and they turned to look up at him nervously. Pitch smiled liked it was a fond memory.

"Don't make him mad. Provoke him and he'll freeze your extremities or worse…drag you to the bottom of a lake. At least, that's what they used to tell the kids because gentleman, Jack Frost isn't just a thrill-seeker. He's a demon. He's responsible for avalanches, hypothermia, black ice...All the things you fear in the winter.

The tech analysts stopped typing, looking away uncomfortably and creasing their foreheads. No one wanted to speak. Pitch then snapped his fingers and pointed at one of his boys.

"Garrett?"

"Yes sir?"

"See to it that our dear, Jokul Frosti, gets to Russia safely with the princess. Make sure he gets a welcome party."

"As you wish."

And he stared back at the photo of the young man dressed in blue while the princess held him tightly from behind. She wasn't looking up at the picture from the other ledge, but Jack's face was dark and fierce. Even through the image, it sent an icy prick down everyone's spine. Except to the one who it should've mattered.

Pitch smile twisted into a gnarled grin. "A hellion indeed."

_..._

_Moscow, Domodedovo International Airport, 5:55 pm_

"_извините..._ _спасибо",_ Jack mumbled in Russian as he excused himself and Tooth through the crowd in the luggage pickup.

Flight #7 landed successfully on schedule and was welcomed by the dark blanket of nightfall.

The sky was bleak and cloudy and the pilot said the city was going through a light winter so there was little snow to be seen in the next days. Eight minutes later, everyone made a mad dash off the plane and into the warm airport ready to start their holiday season. Inside, the festive atmosphere was adrift and people laughed and sang Slavic holiday melodies.

It should've been uplifting, but there was no joy to be had as the two kept thinking about Pitch Black and the time they were stretched for.

Meanwhile, the brunette kept his head low, making sure his steps were slow but fluid. His muscles were tight and whenever he caught another man's gaze, he held it for two seconds then looked calmly away – look away too fast: pins you as weak; stare too long: makes you look suspicious.

He had to keep his eyes open for anyone that looked _too_ calm in the arrival terminal. Pitch's subordinate was around somewhere stalking the crowd like him, and if the industrial terrorist was as good as the world feared him to be, the guy was probably carrying a crap-load of undetectable weapons designed by the mastermind himself.

Jack played with his right fingers, tapping each fingertip and when they passed a bickering family, he expertly reached over and stole one of their son's leather jackets and shoved it into his carryon.

At least the weather in Russia was cold...he wasn't sure how much more heat he could take in a country like Vietnam anymore.

That's when he finally spared Princess Thia a quick look behind him. The princess anxiously stayed on Jack while the new, unforgiving cold ensnared her through the thin dress.

She had tremors all over and was biting her lip as she tried to keep up with his long strides.

He frowned.

"Sorry," he muttered and shortened them instantly.

When she came up beside him, Tooth shot him a small smile, grateful that he picked up on her discomfort – she didn't want to say anything when he looked like he was spy-ready.

Jack saw the smile and instantly tensed. He twisted forward again to avoid seeing it and they both headed for the check-in.

As they did, Jack scanned the crowd nonchalantly but profiled everyone.

He had the ability to see _beyond_ average and was trained to twist reality for any disturbances. It was how he hunted criminals in incognito and stalked other dangerous, disguised men for months. Maybe even years...if he could only remember.

All Jack knew was what watching other people and analyzing them had become almost a natural part of his routine. But so far, no one look out of the ordinary and that pissed him off.

At the check-out, a young, female employee greeted them and Jack presented their passports while Tooth held the carryon beside him.

As the two spoke in Russian mildly chatting about hair and business, Tooth listened, her interest piquing in Jack's sudden change of accent…not to mention her annoyance when the woman behind the desk, with her long platinum locks, kept staring at Jack so suggestively.

After the girl stamped and cleared the fake passports, Jack took them back and Tooth thought that was the best time to peek over beside him and read his. She really wanted to know the rest of his fake name – you know, in case someone asked.

Tooth mouthed it silently.

_Adrian J. Bennett_

She also noted that Jack's hair in the photo was black, but he closed it suddenly and put it with the rest in his pocket.

"_Spasibo (thank you)," _he said with a half smile and the girl winked at him when they finally moved away.

As they did, a sudden surge of people from all exiting the lines joined them too.

Jack huffed and took hold of Tooth's arm as the people excused, shoved, and weaved in and out of each other. Tooth tried to forget about that awkward encounter and spoke up.

"Did you pick the name 'Adrian'?" she asked and Jack looked at her.

"Hue picked it."

"What about Bennett?"

"I did."

"Why?"

Jack paused just the slightest but Tooth caught it before he kept moving again.

"I don't know. It just...seemed right to me. I think I heard it before."

Tooth scrunched her eyebrows and didn't comment.

"And what does the 'J' stand for?"

Jack rolled his eyes and blinked when the fringe of his bangs tickled his eyelashes.

"Hue thinks he's hilarious when he really isn't. The J stands for _Jokul._"

"Really? It's still _'Jack?'_" she smiled (translated).

"You might as well know, in case we need a cover story and someone asks."

Then he fell silent and tightened his grip on his backpack.

Jack started to survey the moving crowd again, his blood pressure rising. He needed to find Pitch's target!

A fedora, a scar, a business suit, a backpack..._anything_ that would help the two of them get back on tr–

"_Prastee meenya pozhaluysta,_" a man stammered in Russian as he pushed around Jack.

Jack paused to let him through but the second he did, his mind went into overdrive.

Something was off.

Jack started to analyze, profiling the solid build of the businessman passing around him.

The man's head was tilted to one side, blinking his slightly blotched eyes slower than normal – _lack of sleep, prolonged use of acute sight...most likely staring at a computer screen or a far distance._

His posture was hunched over just a fraction, completely unnoticeable especially from a distance but very noticeable to Jack – _indication of meek nature, definitely plays the derogatory role._

The man also kept squeezing his fist on the handle of his backpack. The knuckles were dry and cracked from what anyone could guess was because of the dry humidity of winter. Jack knew better because he'd had similar abrasions – _pattern of the skin cracks not environmentally sustained, physical pressure...fist fight or excessive moisture from a glove._

This also explained to Jack why the guy's body was too heavily built under his business suit. Men who worked in commerce or law (the way he chose to dress) were usually lanky or at least didn't look like they belonged in the WWE. _That_ was obvious from a distance – _bulky figure, most likely a bodybuilder..._

But the biggest indicator was the backpack.

It looked too massive for a regular guy to travel for business with. It was a hiker's heavy-duty pack – the same one Jack saw on the backs of the men who were surrounding Pitch at the warehouse! - _weapon carrier obviously, maybe an M40A3 with a bipod...but why carry it if you're only tracking one guy? Damn, he's probably a scout sniper._

It was a still long shot to guess all of this on one guy, but still.

It _had_ to be him. He had to be the tracker that Pitch sent.

Jack was ready to advance on him when his target sneezed and went to zip up his dark coat.

The man looked disheveled as he pushed through the crowd, fiddling with his zipper.

But Jack caught what he was wearing underneath...a dark, red bodysuit with jeans over the bottom.

It was the same uniform top that the dead ELF was wearing!

_"Zhdat'!" _Jack cried.

He tried to reach for the man's arm but a family cut him off and blocked his path.

"W-What is it?" Tooth asked as she came up beside him, hearing him yell out _Wait!_ She gripped his hand on her arm, afraid that something was maybe coming at them through the crowd or something.

Jack didn't feel it as his eyes grew wide, trying to look over and through the rambunctious people but when they finally all passed, the man had vanished.

He bolted through, slipping out of the princess' hand and going on ahead.

"Ja–A-Adrian!?"

But Jack was already a blue blur vanishing amongst the crowd. Tooth tried to move ahead, but she wasn't as fluid as the spy.

She lost him instantly.

Jack looked around the crowd but he had a hard time tracking people in the busy setting similar to Ho Chi Minh City.

He ran a hand through his hair and turned. He'd try another direction...

Without another thought, Jack dashed away.

...

_Airport pickup waiting area, 6:45 pm_

Tooth rubbed an eye and curled herself more into the leather jacket around her shoulders.

Her breath was like a smokescreen when she puffed it between her lips and her throat was crisp straight down to her lungs. The cold air was merciless.

Jack had disappeared for well over fifteen minutes and she decided that since he'd have to come back for his police belt and the carryon, she would wait for him in the pickup area outside until he came back. It was better to be outside where there weren't much people.

When she found the jacket in the bag she decided to use it for warmth. She also found his toothpaste and used (and ate) some of it to keep her mouth clean and her anxiety low.

Then she sat (shivering) and waited, fiddling with the hair tie on her wrist that Bao had given her and stroking a yellow feather.

"There you are!"

Tooth snapped her head up at him.

Her mouth was ready to spew an entire slew of English-Thai curse words, but she stopped short and hung slack.

Jack jogged up to her wide-eyed and looking almost...worried. Not pissed, and Jack was usually murderous when she vanished.

He was holding a turquoise-colored trenchcoat.

"Here," he said quickly and pushed a purple scarf into her hands.

"W-Where did y–"

"Come _on!_ We need to leave!"

Tooth flinched at his anxiety and jumped off from her seat.

Jack gestured at her to take off the leather jacket before opened the coat for her. Tooth was still on 'bewildered autopilot' as she moved herself in front of him. He put it on her.

The trench coat was a snug fit around her form but she tensed when she realized...it was still warm.

He stole her clothes...again.

She blushed and turned back to face him, watching as he took the leather jacket and shrugged it on.

It was one size too small for him but it was still comfortable. Jack never had a leather jacket before (he was more of a trench coat person) but it felt nice and decided that it was maybe better.

And from the look on the princess' fond gaze...it probably looked good too.

But how the hell would he know?

As he checked the pockets for stuff, he pushed up the long sleeves, enjoying the feeling of the wind on his forearms.

"I ran up and down that terminal twice but I didn't–" he stopped. His glare came back on his blanched features. "And it's cold out here, why are y–"

"Y-You ditched _m-me_ remember?" Tooth snapped as her teeth chattered as she plopped back down on the seat. "Besides isn't th-that what a sp-spy chase is all ab...about? I had to h-hide from people."

Jack continued to glare at her for a few more minutes before the sight of her trembling form and red nose was too much.

After he sighed, a thick cloud of warm air passing over his lips, Jack looked at her seriously again.

"We gotta go. Now!"

"Why? Di-did you end up catc-hing him?" she guessed, thinking he saw Pitch's hired tracker.

It was the only explanation she came up with in the last fifteen minutes to explain why Jack left in such a hurry.

Jack shook his head rigidly and tightened a fist.

"No," he bit out, "but I heard him mention the Khamovniki District. So that's where we're headed."

"W-We're seriously still following him?"

Jack shot her an impatient look and nudged his head at the subway sign.

"_Yes_, but we're already five minutes behind because I had to look for you! He left on the train and next one's coming in two minutes!"

He held out a hand for her Tooth took it, standing on her shaky knees. When she was standing, he spoke again.

"Not only that…I saw this."

And he lifted a newspaper he snagged. It was all in Cyrillic and Tooth was about to translate the small section with his name on it but he explained it to her instead.

His face split with anger.

"_Someone _ratted my name out to the Vietnamese police, probably one of the damn squealers over at Hue's place after I killed that guy...and the Tổng cục 2 Intelligence Agency found out!"

Jack threw a punch at the wall next to him, impatient and furious.

"So the search radius around Vietnam just extended and they've already warned Russian Interpol about my possible landing…so I need to hide. And soon."

A large lump grew in the back of her throat and she felt like her heart just fell into her stomach.

Tooth nodded numbly, feeling on high alert now that Jack could (potentially) be arrested. It seemed impossible when she thought about how long he'd been on the run already and the skills she'd seen with her own eyes. But there were cameras _everywhere_ at this airport so they really did need to disappear.

Tooth sent a trembling glance at the stairs to the subway. "B-But the guy–"

"I _know_, princess."

Jack pulled her hand with him towards the downstairs train platform.

"So come on, I need to find this guy first before anyone else shows up. Then I'll hide you somewhere so I can–"

She pulled back and glared at him.

"No. _We._"

Jack stopped tugging her and turned his head. The wind rustled his hair and the collar of his blue shirt.

He frowned.

"Wh–"

"_We _need to f-figure out where he's headed," she said serious and firm. "This isn't just your m-mission anymore. It's mine too, r-remember? So stop thinking like you n-need to do it all yourself. _We're _finding this guy, and then _w-we _need to hide."

Jack was ready to argue against her small and positively ruffled form in the cold, winter breeze. But when he saw her stance and tight jaw, he stopped himself.

As much as he hated the idea, Toothiana was right. And besides, he'd feel much better knowing she at his side than alone – he kept trying to tell her so every time she bolted.

He sighed edgily and rubbed his eye.

"Fine, _we_. But you don't know Russian so I don't know how in the hell you're gonna be helpf–"

"I do!"

He raised an eyebrow.

"_Seriously?"_

Tooth felt provoked again.

"Why is that so hard to believe? You just assume I can't!? Or is _that_ why you went and flirted with that girl at the check-out desk?"

Jack blinked.

Really? _This _is what they were talking about? They were on the run for Christ's sake but argh, the princess couldn't help it!

A nasty twinge had crept into her stomach as she listened to the two speak. How come Jack was able to smile at the other girl so easy? _They'd_ been together for two days straight and he never _once_ cracked a smile at her! Then suddenly Little-Miss-Anastasia back there flips her hair at him and he acts like every guy she'd been with before? _Pathetic._

Jack wanted to argue and say it was nothing like that. He hadn't even entertained the idea since _newsflash!_ they were waist-deep in terrorist shit. Plus to defend himself, he saw _right through_ that Russian girl's facade so he didn't buy her ac–

Jack squeezed the bridge of his nose.

_(Russian) "__Give me the strength _not_ to push her into the Moskva River,__"_ he muttered darkly at the floor.

She yanked herself out of his hand and moved down the subways step. Her cheeks were hot with embarrassment and frustration.

"I can _understand_ you," she sang spitefully, "and don't you _dare_ try because I'll just ditch you again."

"You tried that twice and it was _still _pointless," Jack taunted and pointed at her. "And this time around, I know Russia's streets like the back of my hand."

He glared at her.

"So trust me kitten, you won't make out of my hold for _five minutes_."

Tooth glared back.

"_What _did you call me?"

"You heard me. Hue had the right idea about you. Feisty, little–"

And Tooth growled.

"_Don't_ call me 'kitten'."

"Then _stop_ wasting time and let's_ go_."

After the two had a brief stare off, they both spun bitterly and ran down the stairs, adrenaline pumping through their veins.

...

_Khamovniki District, 7:41 pm_

About an hour later, Jack had his arm around Tooth's shoulder and was guiding the two of them out of the train at their stop.

"_Keep your head down,_" he mumbled and bent his as all the people were screaming and shoving themselves around them.

A pair of Russian federal agents had gotten on the train a stop earlier and Jack recognized them under their covers instantly. He knew they were on surveillance and thinking fast, he set one of his smoke bombs on fire and told Tooth to separate. After he handed her a newspaper, he gave her the lit bag and told her to drop both in a corner then move away.

Tooth did flawlessly and while the two agents helped to calm down the rest of the passengers, he pulled her out with him at the next stop and they vanished before the other two could do a head count.

When they were safely back on the icy sidewalks, they both ran two blocks south before the coast looked clear.

Tooth wiped her mouth and finally looked around while Jack kept silent, brooding as he madly worked calculations and tactics in his head. When he left briefly to go into a dimly lit store, she waited outside.

But she didn't mind the cold once because her eyes grew wide.

She had never been to Russia and now, here she was during the middle of Christmas.

Moscow was probably amazing during the day, but at night, it was absolutely stunning. With its rich culture and gleaming lights coated in a holiday glow, everything seemed to sing and shine back at her.

Tooth made an 'aww' under her breath. She walked off the curb to a nearby overpass and looked at a roundabout in the distance.

It had magnificent statues and iconic buildings in the distance, in names she could barely pronounce and histories she had yet to read up on. She also wanted to know if they passed the _Kremlin _but didn't want to ask. She just wanted to drink it all in, even the signs, trying to memorize each place so she could safely tuck it away for future trip planning. The girls would love it here, especially Tulia who was the major bookworm of the seven handmaidens.

Tooth squeezed her eyes shut briefly thinking about how worried they all must feel being away from each other.

"**_Where am I...W-Where am I?"_**

"**_Don't worry, pet...You're safe."_**

Toothiana frowned and tried not blink back the burn in her eyes. She had a hunch that wherever they were, they were still terrified and confused.

"Princess!"

Tooth turned.

Jack exited the currency exchange shop with the money he'd had from Vietnam. Now instead of đồng, Jack was carrying rubles.

As he joined her on the dark street, a light snow began to fall.

Jack looked down at her, watching her eyes blink rapidly as she tried to open them again.

"You all right?" he asked cautiously and watched her tighten the scarf around her neck.

She nodded.

"A-Are you?"

Jack didn't answer and squinted his gaze out over the bridge.

"I got enough cash for a couple of days," he said instead. Tooth watched a cloud of hot breath billow over his thin lips before she nodded numbly.

"S-Sounds good," she said and a wind blew her hair back and pulled at her feathered earrings.

The nightmare on the plane earlier seared behind her eyelids.

Jack nodded and ran a hand roughly through his brown-white hair.

"Stay close okay? Everyone's looking for me so we need to be in discretion."

…

The two hurriedly walked two blocks past a long bridge and small church, into a more commercial district lined with small shops, whilst talking about how to search for the guy in the red uniform.

Each time they passed a group of people or several men, Jack held her hand and pretended like they were a couple just out enjoying the holiday air. He wanted to scale the roofs too but was afraid to leave her alone so decided that pretending to be two tourists walking the streets would suffice. Tooth had no problems with it, inwardly jumping with butterflies in her chest whenever his cold hand clutched hers tightly. She didn't think she'd ever get used to the electric jolt she felt whenever their skin touched.

As he did, Jack explained that he didn't know where Pitch Black had his hideout and the best chance at finding it was by following his men. So he told her to keep an eye out for a man in a brown over coat with matching bags, jeans and a red shirt.

And if it failed and they didn't find him, Jack promised to let her rest at a hotel and do a midnight scout. He would go to the last known spot where one of Pitch's men was seen on the Russian spy database (he hacked).

Tooth thought it was a good idea as any and for once, was more willing to listen. She also promised not to run off as long as he returned by 1 a.m. and they'd call it a night.

…

_Two hours later, 9:37 pm_

After spying on about thirteen men in dark suits, Tooth's hopes began to fall and Jack's frustration continued to rise. She grew cold and hungry but didn't say a word as they walked past opened stores and the warm encircled her ankles. She wanted to prove to herself that when the going got tough, she could handle anything – as well as for Jack, for her sisters, and for the rest of the missing princesses everywhere.

When they hit a park with nice lanterns and benches, they decided to rest for a minute to review their results. A small band of carolers and a violinist were playing softly in the distance.

The snow was starting to fall more prominently.

Tooth smiled, trying to lighten Jack's darkened mood, and pointed at a tree as they passed.

"I see you've been here earlier and did your work," she commented on the frost-covered wood.

He rolled his eyes jarringly. "I'm not _that_ Jack Frost."

He then looked around the park. The guy had to be _somewhere_ because Khamovniki wasn't that large of a section in Moscow.

They needed to keep moving.

When a harsh wind blew through the park and sent both their hair into frenzy, Jack beckoned her with his ungloved finger and pointed down another street.

"Come on princess," Jack urged.

That's when Tooth blinked, realizing something, as he sauntered away.

Jack didn't zip up his jacket. As she stood there bundled up in her coat and tightly-wound scarf, she couldn't help but feel cold just by looking at him.

"Why didn't you get anything for yourself?"

He looked at her curiously before she pointed to her scarf.

"D…Do you want my scarf?" she offered. Tooth thought Jack was an asshole most of the time, but she wasn't heartless.

"Oh, no I'm fine," he mumbled with a dismissive hand. "I don't get cold."

Tooth sputtered and shook her head.

"B-But it's like below freezing here!"

Jack shrugged, trying to get her to lay off him.

"I'm _fine_."

"How can you be _fine_, Jack? Everyone gets cold _especially_ in weather like this." She began to unwind her scarf angrily. "Take this then!"

"Princess, _no_. I'm serious."

He felt a scowl creep onto his face. She was doing it again.

Being sweet.

"Princess!"

"Jack here, please!" She moved to hand it to him but he stopped her by catching her wrists.

Jack glared down at her.

"Princess, I _said_ I'm okay! I don't feel it. I don't _feel_ the cold, alright? So can you just drop it?"

"But I don't understand what you–" Tooth wanted to keep asking but then a powerful wind blew through again.

Tooth pulled away from him and squealed, visibly cringing against it while Jack just stood there, eyeing her worriedly.

When she looked up at him, she frowned.

The wind was icy and the snow and bitter, and it crept all through her body, into her chest and lungs and threatened to make her shake violently. Yet Jack didn't seem to react. He didn't seem to feel it.

He just kept letting the wind play with his brown locks and the air caress his smooth and exposed throat.

_I don't feel it. I don't _feel_ the cold, alright?_

Tooth's mouth opened a fraction, sort of disbelieved by how disturbing yet…amazing Jack was. Was his body _really_ immune to it?

_ 'His cheeks…' _she thought,_ 'his ears...even his nose isn't red. A-And his teeth aren't chattering. But _how_ is that possible?'_

When the wind died down and she stood back up, Tooth creased her forehead. She slowly redid her scarf around her.

"So is...is that why your hands are always so cold? And why you liked the air-conditioning so much?"

He rubbed his forehead stressfully.

"Yeah I guess..."

"Have you…" she was afraid to ask but swallowed her dry mouth anyway. "Have you always been that way?"

But he looked away and didn't answer.

So Tooth did instead.

"Wow, you really _are_ like the real Jack Frost."

And Jack again, said nothing before he walked away.

…

As they kept walking, crunching through ice and salt pellets, they eventually passed an open convenience store.

Jack completely ignored it but Tooth eyed the concession stand longingly through the frost covered glass. Her gums watered and her fingers tingled at the sight of all the spearmint gum.

She pushed down her craving with a shaky, icy breath.

"Ohh," she desperately mumbled to herself. "What I wouldn't do for a Trident pack right now..."

Jack's acute ears heard.

"How can you think about gum at a time like t–"

Tooth bumped into him.

She was about to apologize before she looked around him to see what had made him stop. It was something on the brick building across from the curb.

"Oh no..." she whispered and watched as Jack quickly ran toward it and ripped the poster taped on the wall. When she came up beside him, she looked down and read the sign with his face on it.

His hair in the photo was black but it was still him.

It was a wanted poster for the local police. Jack's eyes widened.

"No," Jack mumbled under his breath. _"Dammit!"_

Tooth didn't get his newfound anxiety.

"B-But I thought you said you were already wanted in Russia!"

"Yeah but just by their Interpol. Not _publicly,_ not by the local police!" Jack growled and crumpled the sheet and threw it on the ground. "This makes things harder."

"Why?" Tooth asked but Jack was already skulking down the alley that the curb of the street turned into, away from the convenience store.

"_Why_, Jack?"

"Because princess, it means it'll be harder for us to hide in the streets and in the shops! When you're wanted federally, local law enforcements don't know shit about you because you're too high on the list. But locally, how are you and I gonna move through Moscow properly if I keep having to hide...Son of a–" Jack growled, running a hand through his hair and stormed down the dark alley like a demon.

Jack stopped and turned.

The wall didn't have just one poster…the entire expanse was lined with them!

He gritted his teeth.

"Jack?" Tooth called as she looked nervously around the street before flitting back into the alley. Her dress was billowing underneath her. When snow had settled itself in her hair and she shook it away.

"I-I think the poster's are only on this wall!"

His eyes widened. Jack then moved swiftly to look out beyond the street and stared at all the buildings.

She was right. He rubbed his eye rigorously then stalked back to the posters.

They _did_ look freshly placed.

"Pull them off!" he whispered hotly and ripped two down from the brick wall.

Tooth immediately copied him and began tearing each of them down with cold, shaky fingers. Her breath billowed out in front of her as she huffed anxiously.

"Y-You think whoever p-put these here is still around? M-Maybe they're nearby putting up th-the rest?" she mumbled as Jack dropped his backpack and the carryon bag and put on his duty belt.

It would help him blend in more if the cops really _were_ out looking for him. He then shot an angry glare down the other end of the alley. Seeing an empty street at the other end, he narrowed his eyes.

"Only one way to find out," he bit out and tightened his glove. He pointed at the wall as he began to move.

"Keep taking them down! I'm gonna go stop the guy if he's still nearby taping them."

"B-Be careful! I...I-I mean..."

And Jack paused mid-step.

He turned to look at her but Tooth had already snapped her mouth shut. Her cheeks grew pink before she busied herself back to the wall and ripped off the rest of the posters more fervently.

But he saw her still biting her lip in deep worry.

Jack frowned.

A millisecond later, he broke into a silent run and left her behind.

As he moved, his breath was hot and moist against the frigid air. His skin prickled in the wind and before he reached the end of the alley, he tightened his weapon belt.

Jack then turned the corner.

Some things were better left awkward and unsaid.

...

Tooth kept ripping the posters down.

Each time the ebony-haired Jack Frost in the poster looked at her, she shivered and pretended it wasn't the same Jack who had just vanished down the street.

The posters said he was still responsible for multiple homicides, still at large in Russia, and to be killed on site – it didn't have as much information as the French article did, but it was enough for any police officer to go on.

The signs were saying that this guy was _bad_...and maybe whoever was with him.

She tried not to think about that as she ripped the last poster.

When Tooth bent down to his backpack, she tried to push the last seven sheets in but it wouldn't budge!

"_Shit!"_

And when the carryon couldn't hold anymore either, she growled anxiously and pulled out a bunch to hold herself.

'_We'll find a garbage can and throw them out, no biggie!_' she thought desperately and zipped the bags closed again.

After she lifted both bags in her hands, Tooth frantically sprinted the short distance left for the alley and turned the corner.

"You didn't have any room left in your bag so we need to find ga–" she stopped.

Tooth froze.

Heartbeat rapid and cold sweat began to run down her neck...

Jack was in the middle of a fight with eight black-clad men _wearing yellow glowing goggles._

This was all a setup, an ambush.

They knew she was here with Jack!

Which meant Pitch–

Two of them heard her and snapped their necks.

Their ghoulish masks pinned her to the cement like a bird to a dartboard.

Tooth didn't feel the posters fall out of her arms as she eyes grew wide with fear.

"N...Ni..."

Jack had just finished a twist-off with one of the men when he caught the turquoise hue in her coat.

Tooth wasn't staring at him as the men advanced on her. His voice turned guttural.

"TOOTHIANA!"

When she snapped her head at her voice, one of the men swooped in and covered her mouth from behind. His glove was like ice and iron, trapping her jaw in place. Her breath fogged up her vision.

_"Mhfmmm!"_

Jack tried to move forward but he got hit in the torso and instead had to block hits from the ambush of men.

They were fast but at least he had assessed _one_ positive to the fight.

None of them were carrying any guns.

Pitch's mission report said that Jack Frost was deadly with a weapon. And not only that, Pitch wanted him captured alive.

But Jack knew they were arch-level Nightmares – faster to avoid and harder to hit.

As he jerked left from a straight punch to his eye, he suddenly had to parry a set of kicks from two other men.

Worse still, he found his focus was lacking.

Gritting his teeth, Jack barely weaved around a crescent kick and tried to control his increased heartbeat.

"_Mmfmhmm!"_

Tooth kept screaming and tried to struggle as the two men tried to hold her steady. They were pulling out binds from concealed pockets inside their jackets and another had a cloth laced with chloroform ready.

Her pink-purple eyes widened.

'_Think Tooth! OH GOD, THINK!'_ Tooth frantically screamed in her head as she stared at the men.

She vowed _never _to end up Pitch's dark and cramped clutches again!

Every time they tried to move toward her, Tooth twisted left and right, kicking her legs out. She tried smacking the bags to hit them but they ripped them away from her hands and left her defenseless.

Jack meanwhile managed to knock one underling away with a low roundhouse kick and immediately flipped left to catch a guy around the neck before bringing them both down. But when he pulled up he had to throw his whole back behind him and back flipped over a garbage can they chucked his way.

He hated to admit it, but they were near trained to his level so it was more hectic to fight them! While he was quicker than a regular spy, they were faster than regular hitmen. He wished he could do more, _move _more!

When he landed, one of them was already on him delivering a right hook combo that Jack could barely keep up with. He lost attention for a fraction and got a punch to the stomach and coughed out the air in his lungs.

Tooth heard him. Her eyes widened when she looked over.

"_Jmmm!_" she screamed his name and watched terrified as the men swarmed him like vile, black wasps – he kept trying to recover but ended up having to block.

He could barely fight his own battles at the moment.

Tooth exhaled a crisp breath painfully through her nose. She couldn't stand being there helpless – she needed to try harder!

"_Mmmmm! Wfmhm mfm Jhfmm fmm!?" (Ooooh what would Jack do?!)_

And Tooth blinked behind wet eyes.

Improvise!

Tooth shook like a leaf as she placed her feet properly on the ground. The ice was thin around her and she dug her flats into the snowy concrete, biting back the numbing pain in her frozen toes.

Then she listened, feeling every movement as the two Nightmares moved around her.

Tooth shut her eyes and focused, and when the second one finally moved in to put the cloth over her, she sprung forward.

Tooth bashed her head against his chest.

Ignoring the dull throb that erupted after, she watched him stumble back onto a patch of ice before she kicked him between the legs.

He grunted, proving to her that he was still a man underneath that black uniform. At least the chloroform danger was gone.

Tooth then eyed the guy behind her. He was about her height – she could use that to her advantage!

With a deep breath, she slumped her entire body forward like she'd seen in a spy thriller once – she wasn't even sure if it'd actually work but she hoped for the best. Pretending to fall like dead body, she used all her bodyweight as a powerful force of gravity to bring down the man behind her. They hit the ground together.

The second his grip loosened, she kicked and rolled out.

Tooth almost got away…but the second Nightmare recovered and grabbed her around the ankle.

(_German) "Not so fast, Princess!"_ he growled and Toothiana fell down with a painful _crunch_ on the ice, banging her chin against the icy concrete and scraping her palms. She cried out painfully and Jack eyed her again through the dark shadows.

She was in trouble!

With an angry snarl, he sidestepped the guys and snapped out his collapsible baton to its full length.

Like at the warehouse, he only chose to use it in desperate times.

And unfortunately, this was becoming one of them.

Through narrowed eyes, Jack dodged the oncoming hits and gripped the steel tightly. He then used his other ungloved hand to catch a powerful wind that blew by.

When he felt the direction of the current, Jack exhaled.

He then swiped at the wind and guiding it to his baton, he dragged it in a sharp cut in front of him.

The whooshing sound was powerful and the force was enough.

It successfully stopped three of the Nightmares coming at him from the front and when two more tried to kick him from below, he gently maneuvered the long piece of air down with the steel and blew their boots off course until their kicks went off to the side.

When they stumbled, Jack twisted the baton and brought down the weapon hard on their bones.

He shattered the knee cap of the guy on his left then performed a reverse roundhouse to the other, smashing his goggles in.

"_Wargh!"_

The others stopped, cautious by the sudden change in the man. The wind around them made it hard to communicate and hear through their earpieces.

Jack's teeth were tight in his jaw, his eyes feral. He flexed his pale, white fingers, turning the currents between his digits.

"**_H-How did I...'lcome to the progr...How am I – T-This can't be...'ter Division, go!...Ok team, punch it!–ARGH!"_**

Jack steadied his heartbeat. It was wild under his chest now that he had awakened his control over the wind.

He then swooped low again, pulling out a small knife from his belt as he did.

With one hand steady on the concrete and another on the baton, he twisted his legs over him and timed it precisely before he snapped both boots out in opposite ends. He got both Nightmares in the gut and when another rushed forward, Jack pulled up quickly and slashed him across the neck.

Their inhibitions gave him an open window so he twisted back around and pulled up the baton, controlling a sharp thread of wind to knock one of them away.

When they cleared a path, Jack didn't hesitate. He nimbly flipped over the assassin then rushed forward across the pavement.

The man had managed to pull Tooth under him and she kept squirming as he pulled her head back painfully. He almost had the cloth to her face–

But Jack came a second before and cracked his baton hard across the guy's goggles. In the blink of an eye, Jack shoved his blade into the guy's head and shoved him off Tooth. She tried clambering up instantly, chest throbbing and nausea threatening to boil over.

"_J-JACK?_"

"COME ON!"

He quickly grabbed her raw, burning hand and tried to pull her away.

But the Nightmares were tactful.

They surrounded the two in an instant.

Jack screeched to a halt and cautiously eyed each shadow.

"N-No!" Tooth whimpered softly and he put his him out to protect her. She placed her arms on his shoulders like a shield as he took several steps back.

His other hand tightened on the baton as he twirled it.

Jack gritted his teeth and shot them a lethal glare.

He wouldn't go down and let them take Toothiana without a figh–

–something _zinged _through the air.

Everyone turned and saw one of the Nightmares catching at his gas mask, trying to claw at something lodged in his vision.

It was a knife with a beautiful wreath design around the steel hilt.

A second later, a gun went off and shot him in the head.

Jack followed the trajectory of the bullet and looked up behind him and the princess.

Up on the roof against the snowfall, were seven shadows. Two stuck out more prominently than the rest in their stocky build.

Then a voice spoke.

_(Russian) "IDTI! _GO!"

A second later, five of the group dropped over the edge and tore after Pitch's men!

"Back!" Jack shouted at Tooth and pulled her behind him as the new men cleared around him.

Tooth looked more hopeful than him, feeling a little relieved when these new guys – who weren't after them – were going after their enemies.

'_And the enemy of my enemy is my friend!' _she thought nervously in her head.

Jack looked otherwise pissed.

He didn't know who these new guys were, where they came from or why–

A loud _thud_ was heard at the foot of the building they jumped from.

Jack's brown eyes widened.

The two bulky figures had just landed on the concrete and began to dash forward. Jack eyed them both as they slowed in front of him.

One had a short, white beard, piercing blue eyes, thick dark eyebrows, and a fur cap on his head. He was wearing a thick aviator jacket with classic white trim on the collar and Slavic patches sewed onto each arm. The other was a guy with the thickest mustache Jack had ever seen and eyebrows just as thick that they near covered his eyes. He was covered in a long fur coat that perfectly matched his thick, facial hair. But underneath his coat, Jack saw he was wearing red.

He blinked and his mouth flew open to speak–

_"__ARGH!_"

Jack turned at the scream.

The Nightmares were fighting hard and fighting back. Their combat strategies were more savage and unpredictable. Tooth's hand gripped Jack's collarbone tighter as she watched with him and others when one of Pitch's assassins kicked one of the men down on his knee and snapped his neck.

The large Slav in the aviator jacket turned to Jack briefly with a wild look beneath his brows before he turned to his equally large partner and pointed at the girl.

_(Russian) "Protect her!"_ he ordered and the other bushy-browed man nodded and sauntered over to two of them.

Jack growled and gripped Tooth's hand on his shoulder.

He then dared the hairy giant to get closer as he brandished his baton but the other man – no doubt to either of them that he was in charge – yelled gruffly at Jack.

"BOY!"

Jack snapped his fiery gaze on the bearded stranger but the other was already pointing at Pitch's underlings. His breath was like a fog as he heaved deeply.

"Hurry! We must stop them!"

And Jack blinked after a moment.

He wanted to turn on this guy and drive his knife into him. He wanted to leave the two warring parties, take Tooth and run. He really did!

But he stopped himself.

Somehow, _something_ in Jack's gut told him to listen a_nd to stay_.

STAY_._

Jack clenched his jaw and narrowed his eyes as the bearded man rushed into the fight.

He watched him lift two weapons out of pocket as he moved in sync with his crew.

This was wrong. Jack's rule was to _never_ trust anyone. Trusting people led to trouble, led to a life shattered...Look how _he_ ended up thanks to his trust in the few blurred people in his memories!

Yet, he felt himself move.

He was risking everything...but he couldn't stop his instinct.

Jack slowly lifted his gloved hand and moved Tooth's off his shoulders.

The princess immediately looked up at him.

"Wh...A-Are you sure?" she choked out.

"_Just stay close and ready!_" Jack whispered.

She tried to argue but then she saw his fingers twitching anxiously. She felt his energy racing, _pulsating_, under the skin.

Tooth bit her lip, hating his idea, but finally she nodded.

"Be_ careful_," she mumbled and this time she looked him in the eye, not feeling embarrassed at all for saying it.

Jack looked at her one more time and gave her hand a slight squeeze.

At last, he turned and rushed into the fight.

...

She promised Jack on the plane that she'd try to believe in the good in him even when he didn't himself or no one else did. So she'd have faith in his decision, especially since he looked so...certain.

When the new, hairy guy stood beside her, she gulped but he only nodded and held out his hand for her to take if she wanted.

Toothiana wasn't about to take it but she let him guide to a nearby wall where he stood next to her, alert and prepared.

Tooth rubbed her forehead stressfully and kept her eyes glued on Jack, chest on fire and frigid air dripping itself down to her core.

...

Jack meanwhile was erratic and with new found adrenaline coursing through his veins.

Seeing all these new men and the odds turn in his favor surged his strength, fuelled his fire.

And while he still didn't know who these men were, at least for the moment, they were Toothiana's (and his) saving grace.

Jack then swung his baton and with a quick snarl, dove into the sea of snow and violent shadows.

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "Not Gonna Get Us" - t.A.t.U. **A Russian girl band ;)**


	15. You Better Not Shout, You Better Not Cry

**You all make good guesses (hehe) but nope it's not Bunny, so try again! I still have yet to reply to many reviews and PMs (thanx as always especially since many of u all have exams and also life to deal with – even to u anons!). As of Sunday, I'm an _official_ adult now so virtual alcohol is on me as u read and de-stress. Lol now I hope u're all ready for more! I already have two sequels I want to write after this story is finished so if u're good then I'll – oh what am I saying? I'm gonna post them anyway haha. ;) But for now, let's just keep up with dear Toothie and her 'sensitive' bodyguard.**

_(Heinous first beta-read replaced...Yeah thanks girlie lol :p)_

* * *

_Alleyway, Khamovniki, Moscow, 11:03 pm_

Jack twisted down when the first black shadow rushed at him.

He hand-sprung himself into a butterfly kick, and nicked Pitch's minion in the jaw, before sprinting right to avoid the whip that was cracked a second later when the man recovered. The Nightmares were silent and terribly unsettling in their gas masks, but the ghostly yellow glow they cast as they moved made it easy to spot them. With his heartbeat controlled and his mind blank, Jack moved on the balls of his agile feet. He thought of nothing but the wind he guided around him and the crack of his baton on the dark shadows that kept coming at him – whenever one of the Russian man's team members blurred his vision, he dodged their fights and spun away. They weren't his targets – at least not until the first wave of strangers were overcome.

Jack suddenly flit his eyes to the left.

One of the taller, more heavily built assassins was staring him down from across the fight.

The two rushed at each other.

The hitman leapt like a fiend with a jumping round kick aimed precisely at Jack's skull but the brunette felt the shift in the air at the last clock and dodged right. When the former landed and tried to snap his foot up, Jack smacked it down and moved in with a tight side kick. The hitmen parried it with his own and tried to sneak a karate chop at Jack's head but he threw both hands up in an 'X' and pushed it away with a snarl. The hitman said nothing and began to take on a more heavy offence.

He went off with a set of balanced front kicks and Jack pushed down each with a tight palm. The boots were hard as steel but Jack didn't feel the bone-crushing impact and matched them perfectly for force. Then when the hitman tore through with a front crescent kick, Jack snapped his spine down and let it fly right over his head before he backflipped away.

Meanwhile, his mysterious allies were dodging and jumping just as hard.

Pitch's men fought with grounded hits and brute strength and the five men recruiters were fairing well but their leader, the Russian in the aviator jacket, was also pleasantly surprised to see that the mysterious brunette in the leather jacket was more agile than his men.

The man watched out of the corner of his clear blue eyes every time the shorter man flipped and twisted out of combo strikes that his own men had a hard to time recovering from. He even watched in astonishment as the agile boy caught a combo punch and drop kicked one of the shadows. Then he used the latter's gas mask as a vault to front flip over!

Those moves...The Russian head had seen them used by many people before and it brought a happy flutter to his chest.

_'What luck!'_ he praised and he couldn't hold his giddiness. His large belly guffawed as he watched the silent hero sweep across the hitmen with his slim baton and aid his men without trouble.

"Keep at it, men!" he shouted in a thick-accented English and laughed as he blocked a set of right hooks from a hitman with his two wreath-designed blades. He didn't have the gun he set off earlier. It was with another of his men...he only carried around one with his team and it was better that the Nightmares didn't know who had it.

"Nyet!" he suddenly cried.

The Slavic leader rushed past a few of his men and leapt into the air behind Jack, landing a knee strike on a Nightmare that was about to attack the spy on his right. When Jack caught the movement out of the corner of his eyes, he threw a quick right hook at the hitman he was fighting in front of him, then twisted around.

The bearded Russian watched in mild shock when Jack grabbed the hitman from the front. Then wrapping his left arm around the latter's shoulder and pulling out the right, Jack kicked himself into a powerful backflip. When he landed, he had the hitman in a tight, reverse headlock under him.

Jack then twisted the man's right arm.

The Slav stood there for a moment, glaring at Jack's dark expression until the latter snapped his head up at him and gritted his teeth.

"We gonna do this or not?!" Jack bit out and the Russian nodded, somehow finding the comment vaguely familiar.

The large man instantly moved forward and drove his blade into Jack's victim through the back. When he slumped dead on the concrete, the two pulled up instantly and stood back-to-back. They were wary of each other and kept their muscles tightened, but Jack and the bearded man couldn't deny it.

They both felt an energy sync between them and decided to use it to their advantage.

Then, they sprung into action.

...

Tooth and the bushy-browed man (who never spoke except for his grunting and urging some men around him in short barks) watched the two – no one had watched them yet.

Jack and the bearded middle-aged man were like the perfect tag team! They covered each other's back and twisted around each other with such unpredictable timing, the three Nightmares who decided to gang up on them couldn't pin either one down. The Slav was big but his blocks were like steel and his punches were stronger than human; and Jack was a bullet, zipping around the man and landing precise strikes before vanishing again with a powerful gust of wind.

When the former landed a powerful blow to one of the underlings and threw him back against the wall, Jack swooped in on his left. He smirked. He waved hello into one of the men's goggles before delivering a violent punch combo and an unexpected spin hook that twisted the assassin's neck around.

And when the final hitman tried to rush at them with a secret blade, Jack and the Slav simultaneously reacted...trusting each other's instincts. The Russian threw out his hand and Jack grabbed it with his glove without a thought. He then twisted Jack around and propelled him at the hitman.

Jack landed a split second before the knife flashed and he dug his boot into the ground (behind the other's leg) before kicking it out under him. When the Nightmare flew into the air, the Russian moved in and followed him to the concrete with a powerful elbow strike to his ribcage. When the two fell,the hitman's heart exploded under his chest under the larger's brawny elbow.

Tooth pumped a fist in the air and she heard her silent, hairy bodyguard give a gruff sound of approval.

She knew it was wrong to be loving this sort of violence but come on! Jack and his new buddies were winning!

When the Russian pulled up quickly and stared down at Jack, the two gave each other a weird stare off – that double team attack felt natural, almost practiced...but they couldn't ponder on it and bolted away in opposite directions.

The team continued to fight down Nightmares, weaving in and out surprisingly well and kicking butts with speed and accuracy. While there were a few hits and misses landed on them, they couldn't deny the possible outcome - with Jack's help, they were going to win and it looked apparent as the remainder of Pitch's men were dwindling. Only four were left and without guns, they were sooner done for.

So the Nightmares tried a different strategy: divide and conquer.

They split up like rats caught in the light and tore after the Slavic's team one-on-one.

...

"No!" Tooth cried as she watched Jack and other six grow frazzled and try to break apart.

"Harumpfh!"

Tooth spun when she heard a deep grunt before her.

One of the Nightmares had landed out of nowhere and was advancing on the bushy-haired giant. The two got into a heavy brawl and she squealed when they almost ran her over. The hairy man heard and twisted their sudden sumo fight to the right, flinging himself and his rival away from the princess.

Moving away from the both of them, Tooth wrapped her arms around herself and bounced on each foot and trying to hide behind each shadow alone. She didn't dare go by a garbage dumpster or large piece of debris in case one of them got thrown against and crushed her in between.

All her earlier excitement drained away instantly. She forgot she was still a part of the fight, not just a bystander. She was still the target. This was a world she liked to pretend that existed through movie and television, a kind of unrealistic life that she'd joked about with friends and family.

"But it's real," she whispered guiltily and ashamed with herself. "It's_ all_ real."

Suddenly, she turned and a Nightmare was reaching out to grab her–

The crack of a bullet went off behind the two of them and Tooth screamed. But it missed its target!

Pitch's hitman had knocked the gun away from one of the Russian's team members and they took a hold of each other. The mysterious ally had tried to shoot the Nightmare in the head when he saw the latter advancing on the girl...but he was just a second too slow!

_(Russian) "Idti!"_ the hero cried and Tooth understood. She backed away again but at the man rushed to fight Pitch's hitman, the shadow had vanished!

"Vher'd he go?" the man growled–

_Beep... _

Tooth froze. Jack lifted his head from where he was using his baton on a black assassin and flipped away. He went into a defensive stance and eyed all the men around him.

_Beep. Beep._

His eyes widened.

_Beep._

Each of the Nightmares suddenly had strange, silver detonators in their left palms.

_Beep. Beep._

They were also standing perfectly still, locking in all their gas masks.

_Beep._

Something was...

_Beep. Beep._

...about to go off.

_Beep... Beep... Beep... _

Jack had never seen the devices before and instantly panicked when the big Russian man who'd just saved his ass suddenly spun on his men and yelled out.

_Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep._

"Men, move! _IDTI!_" But it was too late. It was Pitch's newest creation.

_Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!_

_Beeeep._

When a flat-line screeched out, they all pressed the yellow buttons at the same time.

...

Like some sort of nightmarish daze, a thick black cloud of smoke instantly spilled from their waist belts and coated the snowy concrete like a plume of ash.

"Back, _back!_" the Russian kept crying. "Stay on feet, men! Eyes open!"

"What's happening?!" Tooth cried as she watched the ground get swallowed by the dark clouds.

Suddenly a huge gust of wind suddenly weaved onto the street.

Jack's head was pounding.

His heart beat wildly in his chest and his eyes were wide with fright. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as he watched the wind work against him and swirl up the black smoke into the air. When it created a big wave too thick for Jack to see past his boot, he heard more than felt the Nightmares spring into action.

They dashed through the black soot, like ghosts and horses, floating through the darkened mist...straight for the other team.

_"NYET!"_ he cried out to the men and raised his hand hopelessly. They didn't see it coming.

Pitch's men moved through the smoke, disappearing and reappearing against the haunting back-splash of dark smoke until they were mingled amongst the Russian's team members.

The leader looked around worriedly, hearing his comrades grunt and cry in pain. Several of them got hit in the back of the head while others were beating stabbed with their own knives. BUt so far, none of them had died yet. Even his partner, the big, furry giant, got a nasty blow to the torso and fell down into the smoke.

It was a nightmare!

Jack was on his toes, frantic and enraged. He tightened his fist on his baton and listened - he didn't know the bearded man was doing the same with his two swords. Then the two suddenly moved around each other. They used their weapons as an extension of their arms in the dark and managed to get each other's potential killer.

The Russian grunted angrily and blocked Jack's assassin with a sword parry until he vanished into the cloud cover again.

When he turned to the brunette, the young man's baton was in heated fight with a blurred shadow until _SNAP! _

The Nightmare twisted into the darkness again as Jack yelled out angrily. Pitch's man had snapped his baton in two.

As Jack tossed it away furiously, he rubbed his eye with frustration.

"_No!_" he growled loudly. "Not NOW!"

_**"You have 14 seconds******__–_"

The memories flashed painfully behind his eyelids and he couldn't control it.

As he tried to pull up, Jack turned to Tooth through the smoke. He squinted at her silhouette which partially visible against the smoke as it continued to encase the entire street.

He needed to get to her!

He didn't know what this smoke was and if it was poisonous or a sleep toxin, he'd lose her**_–_**

**_"Transport him ou–"_**

"Argh, no!" He gritted his teeth. He tried to move to the princess.

But then he froze. Her pink eyes caught his from the distance and she stared at him, fearful and alone. The princess had her hands clasped under her chin afraid to move in the cloud, but silently calling to him across the blurred battlefield.

That's when a shadow appeared behind her.

**_"You son o_****_–_** ...ed to me this entire t**_–BACK_**! Stay BACK!"

Jack's eyes widened.

Like moving through water, he watched the black around her swirl and distort until it revealed a disturbed gas-mask just above her head. Then a pair of hands appeared on either side of head.

**_"J-Jack?! T-This isn't–that tooth is-s kept under __lock-k an_****__****_–_**"

Tooth saw his change in expression and she paled. She didn't have time to react as Pitch's hitman shoved his glove against her mouth and grabbed her from behind.

His vision spliced into two.

**_"_****_–_**u should always ta**_–_**I'm with damn cat-mouse**_–_**"

**_"Wait you don't underr_****_–_**Who ARE you? JA**__****_–Who am I?_**"

Tooth screamed, shooting her hands out to him as she was being pulled away.

_"Jfmmm!"_

_**"JACK!–o are you!?"**_

Jack's heart went into overdrive.

**_"WHO ARE YOU?!"_**

And his vision turned red, and he screamed.

"NOOO!"

Suddenly the Northern wind cracked direction and surged toward him.

Like a vortex, Jack sucked all the smoke toward him with an invisible vacuum. He gripped his fists tightly and breathed in the frigid air. Then when he couldn't take it anymore, he snapped his hands out.

The wind obeyed.

The current exploded into a thousand air pockets and with a powerful yell, Jack pushed all the wind away with the strength of a hurricane. It knocked everyone off their feet.

The air created an immense shockwave, shattering glass everywhere along the street and sending the parked car alarms several miles away into a frenzy. The snow flew up like bats of out hell into the atmosphere until the entire street around him was virtually wiped clean of ice, and dirt and the pressure from the force was mind-blowing, _deafening_...it threatened to suck all the air out of everyone's lungs – well everyone who _didn't_ have a gas mask.

The Nightmares were flung like ragdolls against the wall and the Russian had to dig his sword into the ground to keep earthbound. Several of his men caught each other and grappled onto beams at the last second and Tooth, who had Pitch's hitman with his arms around her, ended up using him as a cushion as they slammed into a brick wall several feet away. The hitman cracked his skull from the impact and a scream wretched itself from Tooth's lips as they both slumped forward.

Jack was completely unaware, his hair blowing violently in the torrents around him and his eyes blurred from the intensity. He was grinding his teeth, his hands were shaking, and the fire in his chest consumed him. He felt almost infinite...invincible...like no one or nothing could touch him and he could split himself into a million atoms.

Then just as quickly as it had come...it all stopped. The North wind tossed itself high into the stratosphere and what remained was a feeling of emptiness. The street had gone cold, and the air was stark and bitter.

When the wind vanished, everyone who was still conscious got up shakily, suddenly afraid of the brunette. There were only three Nightmares still alive and four of the Russian's men left standing (not including himself and his furry partner).

Jack meanwhile was panting, for the first time in a long time, heaving deep breaths as he leaned heavily on his knees.

He had never done that before.

_Never._

He didn't know he could!

He thought that all that was strange about him was just the tiny guidance he had over the breeze. But then he saw Toothiana, and the smoke and the shadow, and he...

Jack snapped his head at the princess.

She was scrambling out of the dead man's hold and was getting up on unsteady feet, using a nearby telephone post as her crutch. When she felt his eyes on her, she lifted her head to him.

...

Tooth wiped her eyes, wet from the wind.

Her body ached with stiffness because it had stiffened before the impact. Now it was trying to break her into pieces but as the snow that flew up into air started to fall back down heavily again, all she did was stare at Jack.

He looked like he was standing in the middle of a crater with the way the dust and snow was painting the concrete at his feet.

She couldn't believe what she'd just seen.

...

As the two continued to silently read each other, neither noticed how the Russian man in the aviator jacket stared at Jack, completely shocked and...something else.

"...Could it be?"

He turned his head and looked his partner in the big, fur coat across from the girl for confirmation. They both gave each other astonished looks...but the fight wasn't over.

"_Nyet!" _he suddenly cried and Jack lifted his head. His heart was still pounding like steam hammer but as he coughed out and gasped for air, he knew why the bearded man had yelled.

The final three Nightmares had recovered instantly and dashed away, cloaking themselves in the shadows of the street.

The Russian gritted his teeth.

"Find them, men!" the Russian bellowed and his men brandished their short, silver blades with the beautiful wreath designs. "Find the–"

"GAH!"

They spun. One of the man's own was nicked in the throat by a sharp blade and bleeding profusely through his throat. When he dropped dead, another teammate had his eye taken out by a second blade.

The two Nightmares were improvising! They had stolen a knife from each of their dead comrades and were raining them down on Jack and the Russian's troop!

That's when Jack sensed something coming on his left and when he dropped to the ground, a blade made _zing_ over his head.

A Nightmare had decided to go after him.

The bearded man and his team watched partially in case the brunette needed backup but were otherwise on their own toes looking out for the other two.

...

Toothiana was trembling. A cold, unbearable sweat was now running down her back.

She couldn't believe how the tables might have turned. Jack was in the middle of a fight with one of the last Nightmares and the other two were invisible to the rest – and they were killing them off one by one! She looked around frantically – maybe she could help! Maybe she could spot one and–

Something hit her foot and she looked down.

The gun that went off earlier... it was at her feet!

Tooth reached down shakily. It was like ice in her fingers but still the cold, steel weapon it was designed to be.

"How-how did Jack take off the safety again?" she mumbled to herself and remembered instantly. With a shaky breath, she grasped the back end and pulled on the decocker the release the bullet cap.

When the _CLICH _sounded, Tooth's lip quivered.

She raised her head and slowly lifted the pistol in both hands, careful not to aim it near her feet–

She twisted her head to the right.

A Nightmare suddenly dropped from overhead, completely oblivious to the Slav and his team who were facing the other end of the street. The hitman didn't waste time and tried rushing forward at her but Tooth choked loudly and instantly reacted.

She raised the gun and with a pool of guilt washing over her, she pulled the trigger.

Two times.

The crack of the bullets made her cry out slightly when he dropped like a fly and everyone, (except Jack and his sparring partner) turned on her. But Tooth was too busy breathing heavily to notice their stares.

She had shot him in the leg and in the torso...but he was still alive.

Her chest was hurting and she wasn't sure if she could do that again but she _knew_ she had to.

There were still two more assassins desperate to kidnap her, and she was only one with the quickest weapon, but with her fingers shaking so bad, she could barely hold the gun! All she could think was that she almost _killed_ a person, another human being. Someone who was a son or brother to someone else.

She bit back another choke and scrunched her eyebrows together fervently.

'_How does he do it!?' _she thought.

How did Jack kill people? She stared down at the hitman screaming in pain, blood sprayed across the snow and cement like a horrific paintjob. What did she need to _do _in order to focus, in order to protect everyone?

Toothiana gripped the pistol tightly. She pictured Jack's face back at the warehouse, in Hue's den, and across the street...

_'Block it out, Tooth,' _she thought. _'God, just block it all out and shoot!'_

That's what Jack did! He was emotionless. Blank.

Jack washed it all away and just...pointed.

So Tooth shut her eyes and tried.

She tried to block out everything but her breath, her heartbeat, and Jack's boots hitting the ice.

But it didn't work.

Instead, she ended up picturing her sisters, her palace, her loving, hard-working people...and everyone else who cared about her – and it was the light from _those_ emotions that fueled her.

Tooth snapped her eyes open and lifted the gun. She leveled the glock at his face.

Everything that was happening in her life was thanks to the men like him, the blackhearted men who worked for Pitch. _A terrorist. _They were to blame and she didn't want to kick out in the balls for it.

Tooth stared down at him without emotion then she shook her head slowly – he deserved much worse, and so would their boss.

_"Go to hell," _she whispered and a tear slipped out of her eye, but she did not blink.

_Princesses do not cry.__  
_

She shot – Tooth got him right through the gas mask.

And when she spotted the second-last Nightmare behind one of the Russian's team members, Tooth gritted her teeth and exhaled calmly through her nose.

She raised the gun shot the last two bullets twice with thinking – it ended up hitting Pitch's man in the jugular vein at the base of his throat. When he sputtered and fell, she choked loudly.

Now there was only one left...the one fighting Jack.

...

Jack looked like he at the end of his rage.

He was matching the Nightmare punch for punch with deflects. With a yell, Jack caught an opening in the man's hits and grabbed onto both forearms and leaped. Timing it precisely, he propelled the assassin's arms into the air with him and tucked in his legs. When Jack was fully airborne, he snapped out his boots and let go. The force to his chest sent the Nightmare flying.

When he landed in a heap ahead of the bearded Russian man, Jack immediately pushed himself about the ground.

He was about to rush in and end it–

Someone pulled him back.

With an angry snarl, Jack spun around and tried to deliver a reverse elbow strike to the man's torso, but the Russian leader caught it quickly and gripped him.

"_Nyet!"_ he barked. "Stand down!"

Jack narrowed his eyes dangerously and gritted his teeth but the Russian had already let go of him and gently ushered him to one side.

"It is my turn," the large man muttered before he stepped toward the remaining Nightmare, alive and on the ground.

"What are you _doing?"_ Jack seethed and the Russian sent him a look before he focused back on the last surviving Nightmare.

"I am ending this," he said deeply then shut his eyes and took a breath, puffing out warm air between his lips.

When the air grew still, the older man opened his eyes.

Suddenly, a sharp _siiiing_ moved across the street in front of him.

Jack didn't hear it with his custom-built earplugs that he shoved on before the plane took off to Moscow, and the Russian's tem members didn't react either because they were positioned behind him – but Tooth didn't have earplugs and was in line with the Russian's man trajectory.

A light went off in her mind and a high-pitched wail floated past her ears.

Tooth tried to clamp her hands down on them and shut her eyes but it didn't help. She felt like someone had tossed a skill saw beside her face and the screech was unbearable!

Then she heard someone.

Someone was whispering to her in the deepest part of her heart.

* * *

"_What do you wish for?"_

* * *

Tooth froze.

...

Jack and other men were heavily focused Pitch's final man.

He suddenly slouched and clambered onto his feet.

The brunette glared suspiciously.

The mask-covered underling slumped forward in a daze as he stared at the older man in the aviator jacket. Something about the assassin's movements disturbed Jack. He didn't even seem like he was awake. Instead, he looked like someone had told him to stand and he was aimlessly doing it.

Like a slave. And that's what the Russian wanted.

As the hitman remained motionless, the Slav entered into his conscious. He twisted deep into his private thoughts and asked him 'what he wanted'.

* * *

"_What do you wish for?"_

Pitch's man mentally answered: _**The tooth.**_

"_Why?"_

_**The fear of failure. Pitch Black needs the report of success.**_

The Russian leader heard the wish but instead of accepting, he rejected it.

"_Nyet. You cannot have the tooth," _he mentally whispered, "_Report the tooth as still missing...Tell Pitch that failure was the result of ambush. Tell Pitch none of whom you have seen. Erase the tooth from your mind, and keep your head."_

* * *

Before Jack could grasp what was happening, the assassin suddenly began to walk away. He clambered up a wall and without a word, the man and his broken gas mask vanished out of sight.

Jack tried to pedal after him but the bearded man grabbed his hand and shook his head.

"Nyet," he said in his deep, broken English. "He will not return."

And Jack violently shrugged out of his touch and took a step forward. He looked up at the roof again – Pitch's Nightmare was gone.

Jack heaved deeply trying to bring down his elevated heartbeat while flexing his fingers. They were still twitching while his energy was on edge. He then stared suspiciously at the bearded Russian.

_(Russian) "What did you do?" _Jack demanded.

The Slav glared at the shorter man sternly.

"I will them to go," he finally spoke softly. "Amplified their most deepest desires and used it against him. It was only way or more would show up."

Jack's forehead creased, not really understanding.

This seemed all wrong, this was–

Something suddenly rushed at him from his vision and Jack reacted, snapping his hand to catch it by the throat.

"BOY, NO!"

Jack froze instantly.

When he turned, his glove was around Tooth's neck.

But she didn't scream or cry like he thought she would – the princess didn't even react at all.

Her eyes were clouded, the magenta a blurry storm of purple and dilated pupils. Her mouth was also hung open slightly and she looked hypnotized.

Her movements were also sluggish and lethargic like Pitch's man, but–

When she felt his cold grip on her skin, her glazed eyes instantly cleared away.

Tooth blinked, waking up from a dream like a mermaid out of water.

She gasped.

The bearded man raised his hands in concern and took a step forward, almost fearful of what the brunette might've done.

"My amplification was too strong, I pushed her deepest desire along with Pitch's. I did not mean to!" he called out but neither the princess or the ex-spy looked at him.

Tooth trembled as Jack looked at her wildly – her hands, which were open at his sides, instantly dropped.

'_What happened?!'_ she cried in her head. She thought back to the last thing she remembered–

* * *

"_What do you wish for?...What do you want?"_

She had answered: _**I want to...I want to hug Jack.**_

"_Why?"_

_**To...to make him feel better.**_

And he had answered: _"Da. You are good, child. Go then,"_ and amplified it without her consent.

* * *

She was about to hug him...but she didn't really mean to.

She turned to the Russian head.

"M-My deepest...but I didn't...I mean I..."

It was just a thought a while back as she watched him fight. Or no, Toothiana had been thinking about what it would be like to give Jack a hug all day...but that was _his_ fault really! He just kept sulking all the time, and he was always giving her things, and she really felt like he needed comfort, especially after what he just did...

"Jack? I..." she whispered and stared up at him, feeling his glove still around her neck starting to scare her.

Jack wretched his hand away from her like it had burned him and stared at her.

_'He...amplified their most deepest desires and used it against them?' _he thought.

But the princess was about to hug him! Her biggest desire...was to...

For_ him?_

Jack took a step away from her. He said nothing and looked away.

Tooth wrung her wrists together instantly embarrassed by his accusatory look. She looked down as something heavy settled into the pit of her stomach, washing away all the adrenaline and emotion she had.

Everything was a mess...and even still, so were they.

...

That's when Jack heard loud, clomping boots against the snow.

When he turned, the Russian man in the aviator jacket was already walking angrily toward him.

_(Unknown language) "__Domo gret skrakya!_" the older hissed and pointed at Jack directly in the chest. _"____Domo meenya gret skrakya tet kujryano?"_

Jack blinked.

His _what?_

"_Jeen skrakya?"_ Jack immediately replied and took a step back.

Yet somehow, he understood.

* * *

_"Young man...W__hat is your Center?"_

* * *

_"My...what center?"_ Jack mumbled back in Russian.

The man's eyebrows rose up high on his head.

'_He knows...He knows the language!' _

The Russian took another step forward, his blue eyes hopeful and almost angry – he almost risked everything by even speaking in the secret dialect but the Slav couldn't believe it!

"_Your center, boy__! The gene!"_ the Slav demanded more urgently. _"What is...What is your Center gene?"_

Jack tensed and the bearded man caught it under his wide-eyed gaze.

"_You do not know? But the wind..."_ the Slavic leader asked. The boy had responded without even realizing what he was capable of knowing. He had to know!

After what he had just witnessed – this boy, this young man...what he just did, all those moves, that lethal strength...the control over the... Only a special group of people could do what he just did – the same people from the company. And it had been a while since he'd seen another survivor.

Yet Jack kept shaking his head and took another suspicious step back from the man's anxious form.

"_W-What's a Center gene?"_ Jack said under his breath. He'd never heard such a...and yet the word on his lips. It sent a tingle down his spine.

He did. He _had_ heard the word before – all the words in fact.

The words the man kept saying...It wasn't Russian and yet...wasn't it? But the words were different, and somehow Jack had responded almost immediately.

_'H-How did I–'_

Jack's eyes widened.

_Луна..._that was Луна!

The man's furry partner, his second-in-command, suddenly came up beside the Russian and leaned to his ear.

_(Russian) "I fear he may be another,"_ he whispered in his boss' ear. The latter paused for a second to give Jack an once over before he pursed his lips delicately.

"_He does not seem to know,"_ the Russian replied under his breath, _"...but that wind was not a trick."_

_"Then __I will trust your judgement," _he replied and when he pulled away, the bearded man frowned – his partner was right.

As he looked at Jack's concern etched onto his face, threatening to crack and reveal the scared man underneath, he took pity on him.

When the company shut down and everyone disbanded, only himself and two other agents were the only ones who escaped Defragmentation.

But the rest...well, the brunette standing before him was a prime example of that result.

"Trust who? Us?"

The Russian and his partner turned at the new voice.

Toothiana just walked up to them with nervous glare and was holding the broken pieces of Jack's baton. Tooth instantly closed her mouth as she approached – from their raised eyebrows, they probably didn't think they were being listened to, let alone by her.

Jack quickly moved to her side and asked her if she was okay, but the older man still had his eyes on her. As the two mumbled under their breaths and the brunette took his broken weapon from her to place in his police belt, the man furrowed his thick brows. That girl's face, those eyes...

His blue eyes finally widened.

He couldn't believe it.

"Come," he said loudly in English and everyone snapped their heads at him. Jack and Tooth turned up at him to find him beckoning a hand out to Tooth. His accent on his tongue was heavy like iron. "Quickly, we must get her to safety."

Tooth's eyes grew big with fear as all the eyes were suddenly on her. Jack narrowed his and stepped in front of her.

"Who a– "

"There is no time. COME _both_ of you! Warehouse is not far, or more Nightmares in area will return!"

"We're not going with you!" Tooth bravely bit out and stepped beside (rather than behind) Jack to show her equal defiance – no more enemies, no more running, she wanted to stand up. She stared him down, mistrusting, like her bodyguard.

"Girl, you must trust me!" the man pleaded.

"Why?!"

"Because I am friend of your protector!"

_"No_, you're _not,"_ Jack growled and took a step forward.

"Not _you,_ boy!" the older man snapped and returned his gaze to Toothiana. "I talk of _Sanderson!"_

And Tooth stopped, a dry lump caught in her throat.

"M...Mr. Sanderson?" she didn't want to ask but did. She was afraid that any of her personal life that she said aloud would be used against her, but he shook his head encouragingly.

"_Da. _Yes, child. I am friend of his. Dear, old friend!"

_"Princess,"_ Jack warned and shook his head slowly, trying to push her back around him but Tooth caught his arm and looked up at him with wide eyes.

"Wait! He knows my private tutor," she whispered urgently.

"But we don't even know if we can trust his s–"

"Mr. Sanderson took care of me as a child after my father died. I trust him with my life!" and she looked back the mighty leader and his party standing together tensely. Jack clenched his jaw and stared down the team of fighters. With three of theirs dead, only the Slav, his partner and the two others remained.

"You must believe me. I know you," the Russian tried once again, this time more calmly so as to not spook the two. "In many letters, Sanderson writes of you. And I too know you since birth."

Tooth's muscles stiffened but not with fear – with anxiety.

"You...you have?" she breathed hopelessly and Jack finally turned to look at her.

"Yes, so come. You need protection, Princess," he confirmed her title. He then threw a hand behind him and turned – his party moved out quickly.

"To my warehouse! NOW!"

"Wait!"

The Russian turned and Tooth raised a hand.

"W-What's your name?"

It took a moment, but the bearded man glared softly at the two.

"Nicolas..." he said._ "St. North."_

And when they didn't say anything, he nudged his head then dashed after his men.

Tooth's mouth was dry and sweat trickled down her neck.

Her anxiety skyrocketed and she wanted to collapse but she couldn't, she _wouldn't _– not after what had just happened. And this man...this bearded man and his band of angels had just saved her and Jack! She rushed forward after them–

Jack grabbed her hand.

"_Are you insane?!"_ he seethed down at her and tried to yank her back. "We can't trust _anyone_. Not right now with the police on my ass and Russian Interpol looking for me!"

"But Jack!" she tried to reason. "He _knows_ me! And he knew my nanny! No one did!"

And when she tried to pull away again, he grabbed her other wrist too and held her tightly. Jack pinned her down with a gaze so intense that at any other time, Tooth would've adored the attention.

"You _need_ to stick with me," he muttered, his hot breath puffing against her cold skin and warming her insides. "I can't protect you like this and we don't know anything about him."

"But _he_ is going to protect _us!_" she argued back and her lip quivered as she heard Nicolas' boots and his teams' clomp farther away. "Jack! Come on, they're giving us shelter and he knew something...about _both_ of us! We need to go!"

And Jack tried to argue again but his mouth snapped shut.

For once, he couldn't come up with another strategy. Toothiana was right. They needed to hide and the mysterious men seemed to be just as good as him at playing the stealth card.

Besides, he was just as curious about the Russian as Tooth was.

And the things he said...it was jarring and loud in his head.

_His center gene..._

His insides begging to know, Jack gritted his teeth.

"Okay...Okay!" he finally said and Tooth hurriedly pulled out of his grip.

Jack watched her run ahead to catch up with the others, memorizing the sound of her footfalls.

Then he followed, leaving behind the remnants of destruction he'd painted all across the street.

As he ran, his fingers twitched and the North wind dissipated.

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "Death Hammer" – Blue Stahli**  
**


	16. My Power, My Pleasure, My Pain

**Sweet mother of...phew! ****^u^; ****You wanted an update? You got it. **

**Okay, so this chapter was originally two but I mashed them together (for reasons) so after this, I can see that we'll ALL need time to recuperate (and yeah, so does my hand...and maybe my brain if we're throwing everything around). SORRY! Haha so (hopefully) the rest to come will be shorter and sweeter to the point. *pinky-swear* And guys we reached 200 reviews! Is this the real life or just fantasy? Asjkl thank u for always taking the time to let me kno how u feel :D**

***Note: Also, LOVE that it's summer. HATE that I have to shave my legs again :/ If anyone can sympathize that'd be awesome.**

* * *

**"But did you know that when it snows, my eyes become large, and the light that you shine can be seen?"**

* * *

_Tverskaya district, North's warehouse, 12:12 am_

The group left the Khamnoviki District and entered Tverskaya Ulitsa, a district more north.

There wasn't a warehouse in sight...but that was the idea.

It looked like a regular empty, rundown structure amongst the fifty others on the avenue, but when North called ahead and ordered the side doors to open, it was a complete lie. The glamour of the tiny warehouse hid the immense underground center from the rest of the Russian citizens – they had no clue that the men who moved in and around it were operatives and _not_ mere businessmen or factory workers.

Inside, there were levels upon levels of iron platforms with stairs and poles dropping to each one. From where they stood, Tooth saw an inventory control system on the main level (their level), another level specifically designed for combat training – and for several levels high, it looked like the warehouse had devoted most of its space to weapon tech and computer control. More still, there were many hallways tucked into each wall, and they heard elevator dings and strange hissing sounds go off in the distance.

So yeah, the warehouse was _HUGE..._It was just too bad that Jack couldn't appreciate it like the princess.

The second they were rushed in after North, and his men shut the steel doors to block out the winter frost, Jack began to shake violently and stumbled.

"Jack?! I mean...Adrian?!"

Jack's nerves were shot and his core was shaking. His skin was clammy and when the princess tried to steady him, his hand pushed her away. He clawed at the collar of his blue button-down shirt, grinding his teeth.

Neither noticed before but in the light, it looked like Jack got more from the fight than he thought.

There was a small spot of darkening skin on his neck. It looked like a tiny network of spidery dark blue lines outlining his veins beneath his snowy white skin.

It was searing him from underneath.

Jack growled and banged a fist angrily against a nearby railing, trying to mentally suppress the pain like he'd been trained.

It wasn't working though and he kept writhing where he stood – he wasn't the only one.

"This way, hurry!" North grunted softly as he stumbled slightly then he and his men ushered the two down a long set of iron steps to the lowest level: the infirmary and resting area.

Jack squinted through his slightly blurred vision and saw that Nicolas, his partner, and the other two surviving men were collapsing on themselves. They were gasping for breath and rubbing their necks.

He looked around for Toothiana's coat.

"P...Pr–"

Tooth gripped his arm and helped him down the iron stairs.

"Don't worry, I'm still here. I'm not pulling a gunner."

Jack shot her a suspicious look but she looked ahead.

"T-That'd be cheating," she tried to joke. "And it's more fun when you try to chase me, right?"

He didn't say anything back, but he gripped her hand tighter as they continued down the steps.

Through painful eyes, Jack kept his brown irises trained on the entire warehouse, trying to memorise the floor plan and looking for possible escape routes. There were over hundreds of men scurrying around doing their assigned tasks but he couldn't see them properly through his blurred pain. Several times he saw a shadowy group of them rush off into one of the many hallways or heard a vehicle screech away from an unseen tunnel.

Jack shot the place a cold, mistrusting look.

At least the weaponry seemed to be laid out like an assembly line – that would be good for him in case he needed an extra set of arsenal.

He was still upset that his baton broke in the fight.

Everyone was a mess once they reached the bottom. The infirmary level was a wide, flat area where tens of beds lined the walls and a major healing dock sat in the center.

North desperately clambered over to one of the medical stations and yanked one of its white drawers open – it had a wreath design craved into its handles. He pulled out a set of what Jack saw were hypodermic pushers – needles without the needle, but with a depressor that opened the membrane and injected people with chemicals.

Jack tensed.

He wasn't afraid of injections, but wary of what North's partner was quickly filling them with.

"Wh-What are you doing?" he wheezed as he watched the larger men shuffle around on shaky knees and heavy breaths like him. They looked suddenly sickly and in pain, trying to crawl out of their own skin.

North didn't answer Jack and glared unsteadily at his other two men.

"_Иди сюда! (Come here!) скорее! (Hurry!)"_ he ordered and they moved forward instantly, rolling up their coat sleeves and open their collars.

Jack and Tooth squinted worriedly – it looked like they'd been through this before because they seemed prepared. Even North's furry partner did the same, taking his fur cap off his bald head and rolling down his thick turtleneck.

That's when Jack noticed – all three of their skins had darker, wider veins trickling down their throats and he could see that it was appearing on their hands when they took off their gloves. They looked worse than him!

The brunette widened his eyes and he leaned heavily onto a nearby table. Toothiana kept her arms up slightly as she stood behind him, ready in case he needed support.

They watched as North handed out all his pushers and tossed two to Jack, for him and the princess. He caught it easily despite the immense ache he was going through and looked up at the Russian. North gritted his teeth and pulled down his red turtleneck to show the same dark patchwork on his neck.

Like Jack, _his_ wasn't as bad as the ones on his partner or his men – it was fairly small but still painful.

He eyed Jack quickly before lifting his white device to his neck.

"Press here, like so!"

The Slav pushed the apparatus against his darkened veins and a loud_ piiiiii-ciss! _was heard before he pulled it away. The others did the same, although their pushers built up a longer charge because they had been infected more.

Jack didn't waste time.

Moving it up to his neck and trusting Tooth when she said he placed it correctly, he pushed the silver ball of the pusher against his skin. The same short (but loud) _piiiiii_ emitted, then _ciss!_ ...something warm flushed across his neck and a tingling sensation plunged itself deep into his bloodstream.

Jack squeezed his eyes shut as the antibodies immediately worked to reverse the virus in his veins.

Tooth watched closely as Jack's neck began to return to its beautiful, snowy complexion almost instantly.

Her pink eyes widened.

'_How did that work so quickly?'_ she thought.

She looked at North and his crew. North was airing out his neck and she saw the dark patch on his neck slowly vanish as well. The other three were still leaning heavily, trying to recover at a slower pace–

Jack suddenly grabbed her shoulder.

He unwound her purple scarf from around her and she squeaked when she felt his large palm cup her neck from behind – he was holding the other pusher in his gloved hand.

"Jack?!"

Jack narrowed his brown eyes down at her as he turned her head slightly back to expose her throat.

"You don't have any..." he started to say but faded out as he continued to twist her in his grip.

Toothiana's skin was still a warm, healthy glow of golden brown and flawless as ever. She was smooth and soft in his touch and the chain from her royal necklace twinkled up at him under the warehouse lights before it disappeared under her coat.

Tooth gulped and when she couldn't take the awkwardness, she tried slapping his hand away from her neck.

"What did I say about treating me like a little girl?!" she snapped with red cheeks.

"Take off your coat," he said as he let go of her.

Tooth stumbled back a bit, still shaky from his lack of understanding personal boundaries. Even if there _was_ danger, that _did not_ give him an excuse to grab her in front of strangers.

"But I–"

"Just hurry!"

Tooth huffed. She quickly unbuttoned the turquoise trenchcoat, put it on the medical dock and stood there self-consciously. As she stood timidly, Tooth rubbed her arms for warmth, shivering in her wet flats.

Jack swept his eyes across her immediately like a hawk on a mouse...but it was weird.

The princess didn't have any dark skin patches or eerie veins like the rest of them – she didn't even look like she was hurting _anywhere._

"Do you feel any pain?" Jack asked cautiously as he gripped her hypodermal pusher in his glove. The other men looked up at the two as they continued to recuperate. Tooth shook her head and furrowed her eyebrows.

"No."

"Are you _sure?_"

Jack took a step forward. Tooth eyed the white injector in his hand and frowned. She looked up at him again, lifting her hands and doing a quick spun to showcase her health.

"Honestly, Jack. I'm okay," she answered softly. "But are you?"

Jack bit the inside of his cheek and gave her another scrutinizing glare. His body still had slight tremors.

"I will be," he muttered and touched his neck. "But that still doesn't explain why _you're_ fine."

Tooth was about to answer when North's heavy footfalls broke their conversation. He came over with a semi-relieved look on his face and looked down at the two. He didn't look as bad as he did before – almost back to normal.

"Are you two all right?" he asked calmly. Tooth nodded and spoke up first before Jack went off his handle again and started snapping at the man rudely.

"W-What happened to all of you?"

North looked down at her more heavily as a dark look etched onto his older features. His forehead became a valley of wrinkles as he spoke in his broken English.

"New invention of Pitch," he explained. "His airborne pathogens weaken substrates, enter bloodstream. Designed to send body into shock then later infection...Luckily my agent discovered his invention before went on market."

Then he pointed to the pusher in Jack's hand and the brunette handed it back to him. "My scientists created antibiotic in just nick of time, and I create this little toy for it."

Jack stood beside her still glaring at the older man but North tried to ignore him as he focused back on Toothiana again.

"But you, princess. Are you all right, child?"

Tooth blinked and bit her lip.

"Yes, Mr. St. North," she spoke politely and eyed his other three men who were still trying to catch their breath but getting better. "I feel fine."

Jack wanted to argue and check her skin again but North took the opportunity to beckon her to him with a gentle gesture.

He wanted to see for himself.

Tooth took a step forward and Jack tightened his fists in case the Russian tried anything. Nicolas gently grasped Tooth's chin and turned her neck up and around as he assessed her skin briefly. Like Jack, he found nothing but a perfect tan and smooth features.

He frowned and pulled away.

"Is truly remarkable," he mumbled to himself and he fingered his white moustache in deep thought. As he did, Tooth looked up at him and got a good look at him.

Nicolas St. North was big and tall, probably close to six feet but not there yet. He was also very buff and stocky under his aviator jacket, and a size that could take up two seats on a city bus – it complimented his brute strength. She also thought that maybe North was probably in his fifties or early sixties by the white of his hair and wrinkled forehead. But his crisp, clear eyes were an electric blue that looked young and wiry and eyebrows that were still dark brown – a reminder of who he'd once been in past years.

Tooth didn't expect him to smile at her once he was done stroking his stern face. All the stress seemed to peel away and he looked younger. He dropped his hands.

"Da. I am happy then."

Toothiana wanted to ask why but Nicolas then sighed and threw a hand to his two men that survived the fight.

"Rest comrades, you fight proud," he said and they nodded tiredly. When they both took off their coats, Jack's eyebrows flew up into his bangs.

He hadn't seen during the fight and in all the darkness but as they were removing their outwear and shuffling out of their second pair of pants...he couldn't believe it.

They were wearing the red uniforms.

"Y-You're ELFs!" he cried and everyone jumped at his outburst. North's crazy eyebrows shot up on his wrinkling forehead.

"How did you know?"

Jack immediately walked up to him and reached into his pocket. His hand was almost shaking...for _weeks_ he'd been searching for another agent! All his questions, what the dying man had said...

The brown-eyed hellion took out his passport and after he turned to a page, he handed the Russian head a small white card.

North took it sparingly and read it. He frowned and looked down at Jack with a somber look.

"Where did you find this?"

"I was following him for a while," Jack admitted sternly, his forehead creased with questions. "But he got ambushed. Not by me."

Nicolas' eyes narrowed.

"Was it Pitch?" he asked.

Jack nodded and after a moment, the Slav sighed. He squeezed the card in his large fist.

"He was good comrade," he nodded. "A old friend I knew for long time."

North shut eyes briefly before he opened them and turned to dismiss the two agents again. Jack said nothing, but he couldn't help but notice that the other ELF workers were considerably younger than the ELF he'd watch die in Belarus. Maybe the two really had been friends for long time – but Jack had bigger questions he cared more about at the moment.

Once the two left to finish their progress reports, Jack gritted his teeth and finally snapped his head up at North.

"Okay,_ start talking_," Jack bit out. "Who the hell are you, and why'd you save us? _Twice?"_

The Russian's eyes widened, completely thrown off but the younger man's snap in attitude and authority.

He glared down at Jack disapprovingly but answered anyway.

"Foot patrol necessary to find Pitch's men. He was trying to stop my operation."

Jack scowled. "What operation?"

As he asked, loud pants and heavy feet pounded onto the infirmary level from a nearby hall.

When they all turned, another red-clad agent carrying a brown trenchcoat and jeans appeared with a heavy backpack on his back.

_(Russian)"__г__-__г_лавный! (_C-Chief!)"_ he coughed out. _"The delivery was a succe–"_

He stopped when he spotted Jack. The two gawked at each other.

"It's you!" Jack said and he pointed at the man while "You're the one I tried to chase in the airport."

"_He_ was the guy?!" Tooth sputtered and widened her eyes. "B-But I thought you said he was Pitch's–"

Jack whirled back on Nicolas and balled his fist.

"What _is_ all this? What's going on here?!"

"Do not be afraid," he said firmly and raised his hands defensively. With a quick glance at his man, North furrowed his brows.

_(Russian) "And did you find ELF 206?"_ he asked but the agent frowned sadly.

_"Pitch had already gotten to him. Am certain was why group of Nightmares appeared in Moscow hours ago."_

_"But did you manage to lose the one following you?"_

_"Da, sir."_

Jack couldn't believe it – he had known he was being tracked!

North then told him to go talk to his partner still standing behind them. When the three were alone again, he swept his hand out to the entire warehouse above him.

"This is underground, secret intelligence agency, one of many 'workshops' in Russia. Is biggest organization of sleeper agents worldwide."

Tooth's mouth fell open.

"Y-You're spies?" she asked and North nodded. He took a moment to cross his arms and admire his men, hard at work way above him on the iron-grated platforms.

"My team," he confirmed. "I have agents all over world, working hard on operations."

"What are sleeper agents?" Tooth asked and Jack looked at her.

"It means spies who go undercover for a prolonged period of time," he explained. "They don't have an immediate mission, and only act when their handlers give them the green light to."

And North nodded. "My men work all year round, but do not take action until winter season starts. Hence why 'ELF' name is appropriate."

Tooth was still amazed but Jack wasn't buying it yet.

"But why is that?" he asked. "What's your mission?"

"My mission?" he repeated and Jack flexed his gloved fingers again, on edge and still in the dark. North glared softly.

"Not my, _our.__ Our_ mission is to stop global crime and terrorism," he said. "Has always been."

When Jack didn't let up, North lifted a finger at the brunette.

"Like you, young man...Jack, Adrian, or whoever you are, we also go by many names, and take many forms," he tried to reassure. "Believe me or not, but I hope you will. We have made it our job to protect people without government funding – is private organization, _secret."_

"But y–"

"North!" someone grunted and all three turned. North's partner, the furry giant of man, came sauntering over with his personal team of lookalikes.

North's partner was as big and stocky as him but a little less intimidating than the Slav. His deep set brow made him look grumpy and he had a thick mustache with the tails falling long past his chin and a large button rose. He still wore his long, brown fur coat over his red uniform. Jack guessed that if North was the Chief, and his buddy was like the second-in-command, then they were the lieutenants or third-rank officers of the agency. They almost looked alike, being big and wearing fur coats, and several were bald or had their hair pulled back in ponytails.

Tooth suddenly grew unsettled by all the testosterone in room and tried to avert her eyes.

She rubbed an eye stressfully and looked up at an ELF agent on the second floor. He was the only one on the floor wearing his full-bodied red uniform – a red vest over a dark red long-sleeved thermo shirt and light black combat boots. He wore a dark belt which she guessed was a weapons belt like Jack's but _way _more slim and high tech. As he was pulling up his red-pointed hood with his gloves, he was talking to another agent, getting some last-minute mission report statuses before he headed out.

Tooth blinked.

'_The dreams!'_ she thought as it finally clicked in her head. _'I can't believe it! These were the men I dreamt about with the other girls!'_

Tooth's mouth grew possibly drier and her fingers began to shake. Rolling on the balls of her feet, she tried to calm her heartbeat as she kept looking around warehouse – she was trying to look for anyone that _wasn't_ a guy, was shorter than 5'4", and for who could pass for her younger sister.

She grew heartbroken when she couldn't see anything, or anyone. North moved around them to his partner.

After the two big men shook hands on a job well done and a said a quick prayer for their fallen comrades, North finally introduced them to the quiet giant.

"Friends," he said with a small smile. "This is Philip Yaloo. Phil is better though. Is old friend of mine, as long as Sandy and other fallen comrade." He was referring to the ELF that Jack couldn't save in Belarus. North then pointed to back to the two.

"Phil, everyone," he said softly to the others. "You must bow...Is Princess Toothiana."

Tooth and Jack were surprised to see all the big, intimidating officers shot their furry eyebrows up their foreheads. As they instantly moved into a line and bowed, Tooth smiled warmly and politely curtsied back, trying to get over the loneliness of not seeing her handmaidens and BT.

She also wanted to go to bed.

'_Wow I suck,'_ she lamented.

Tooth missed Jack's dark expression as she looked at the men who could basically pass for yetis or a group of Big Foot.

He had a keener eye than her and noticed how their skin paled at the mere mention of her name and how stiff their backs were...almost like they weren't prepared or nervous to meet the short woman.

Then North pointed at Jack.

"And this is...uh...what is name again, boy?"

"Jack," he said not bothering to hide it. "Jack Frost."

North blinked for a second then gave a deep laugh.

Tooth and Jack looked at each other before frowning slightly – the guy was weird but when he stopped holding his gut to compose himself, his smile was still warmly etched onto his face.

_(Russian) "What luck!"_ he cheered before switching back to English. "Jack Frost, just in time for holiday season!"

And Jack scowled, tired of the same shit again.

"I'm not _that_ Ja–"

"But there will be more time for that later!" North waved a hand dismissively and turned back to his partner seriously. He narrowed his eyes.

"Get men to collect bodies," he mumbled so as to not spook Tooth who was within earshot. "Make sure no trace left behind, da?"

Phil nodded and left with his burly troop after they agreed to meet once he returned. When he was gone, North walked back to Jack and Tooth quickly. He suddenly produced a huge amount of money from some secret pocket neither of them had seen. When he handed the rubles to Jack, North pointed at Toothiana's dress.

"Who give you that?" he asked and Tooth looked at Jack. North shot the brunette an almost exhaustive look before his eyes turned hard and serious again.

"You know first rule of spy book, Jack," he said. "Be prepared! So go buy her new clothes."

Jack glared at him.

"W-We have to go back out there?" Tooth asked nervously thinking about the Nightmares that could be still crawling around. The two ignored her.

"And have you track us while we're out there? _No thanks."_

"Boy, I am serious. This is no joke."

"Do I look like I have time for that?" Jack growled and marched forward. _"Give me a reason_, or I'm taking her whether you like it or not."

North's eyebrows narrowed worriedly.

"You cannot!" he snapped. "She is in danger!"

"Buddy, I've been protecting her for two days...and you saw how fast I can move in that alley." Jack narrowed his eyes to slits. "I can pin your agents down no s–"

"Jack!"

He stopped when Tooth came up beside him. She had a stern look on her face but the sad glint in her eyes told him to calm down.

She looked up at North gently.

"Can we talk when we come back?" she said politely and North nodded.

"We must. There is _much_ to discuss...and I will call for Sandy."

And the weight in Tooth's heart instantly lessened. She smiled gratefully before she turned a frown on Jack.

"Jack..."

Jack looked at her with wide eyes. How could she be so forgiving? When he tried to get her to trust him, he practically had to tell her everything about him! And even then, it required a lot of screaming and pushing and a little threatening. But with this guy...just because the older, bearded man had a team of skilled fighters and seemed to know her nanny, she was willing to let it go?

Jack didn't understand Tooth – he didn't understand women in general!

He gritted his teeth.

"_Princess_–"

"No, Jack!" she stopped him and scrunched her eyebrows worriedly. "Please...Listen to him, come on."

"Yes boy," North butt in. "And buy princess regular clothes. No dress this time."

"It was the only thing I could grab for her," Jack argued back tensely, not at all liking that weird accusatory tone in his voice – like Jack _wanted_ her to wear it. North crossed his arms.

"Is very beautiful yes, but not good in this winter. You will find twenty-four hour shop two blocks south of exit street."

"But I..." Jack ran a hand through his hair and sighed angrily. He looked up desperately at the Russian. "_Why_ are you doing all this?"

He saw Tooth's face fall. She looked at him like she wanted to comfort him...like she wanted to when North's power had asked for.

He kept his eyes down. No, he couldn't let her...He _wouldn't._

North frowned openly at Jack. He still felt pity for the brunette, remembering the wind he controlled and his obvious confusion about...who they both used to work for.

North then began to take off his coat – the two were surprised to see his two impressive, tattoos on each arm. One was inked with 'Nice' and the other 'Naughty'.

"I promise. Will try to explain when you return," he said softly then called over an ELF agent walking past the guardrail on the second floor. The man jumped over the rail and easily landed on the concrete before he jogged up his chief.

"Yes sir?" he answered curtly and Nicolas put a hand on his shoulder.

"Take these two to East exit and let them back in once they return," he ordered gently and the younger man nodded. As he walked past Jack (of whom glared suspiciously at him), he beckoned them with a hand.

"Follow this way please!" he said and Tooth moved forward. Before she took three steps, she paused and spun around – but North was already holding out her coat and scarf for her.

"Please return when you are finished," he said, wary of Jack's suspicions and not wanting them to disappear.

Tooth shot him a tender smile and took it gently.

"Thank you so much," she said timidly, "for everything."

And North smiled as he watched her bundle her small form into the coat. He couldn't believe how much she'd grown from the last pictures Sanderson had sent him.

"It is pleasure of mine. And promise to dear friend," he said simply and waved her off. Tooth grinned before she moved away.

"Come on, princess," Jack mumbled and grabbed her wrist and quickly headed with the ELF to the door.

Jack was still uneasy, especially with Toothiana's eager smile about the whole thing.

He didn't like this new chapter beginning in his life, one he was slowly starting to lose control of. And if anyone liked to be in control, it was him.

Jack gripped Tooth's wrist as they left the warehouse alone and headed for the shopping boulevard again.

He wasn't going to let this bearded spy chief run everything, even if he _did _know the princess and just saved his life.

...

_Tverskaya streets, 12:51 am_

The snow was less than it was when they were first out and it was pretty, blanketing the streets like sugar.

When they were alone on the street, Jack rubbed his eye then moved to rub his scalp.

Everything was just getting more stressful and this downtime with the princess wasn't helping. Why were they back on the streets when he was wanted, when more of Pitch's Nightmares were probably still crawling around?! What was that toxin he succumbed to and why didn't the princess? And why couldn't he _not_ help but trust this St. North character and his league of Christmas knockoffs?

And even _still_, there was the bringing up of his Center gene. It was still wrapped around his head, it and everything to do with the company, Луна, and a company he'd yet to get a name on.

He wanted answers _dammit_ – and Tooth humming 'Let It Snow' wasn't helping him either.

"How can you be so relaxed?!" he spat and she instantly jumped. When she stopped humming, he watched her turn sour and a part of him felt bad for ruining that peace.

"What!? The guy _saved_ us, in case you'd forgotten! Without him we wouldn't have gotten out alive."

"But we shouldn't trust him yet. _You _shouldn't. And I saw you with that gun," he kept talking. "What if it'd been empty? No one was around, you could've–"

"Hey, you should be proud that I didn't just stand there and I at least tried! And it worked!" she argued back growing more irritated with his griping. "So why can't you just calm down? I managed to get out alive, and so did you!"

"But you almost didn't because I wasn't there," he bit out and remembered how the black clouds swirled around her and a Nightmare came. "...You almost got hurt."

Something heavy instantly fell between them. Jack immediately clenched his jaw and when he rubbed his eye again, he missed how Toothiana stopped in the snow.

When he turned, he found her frowning and crossing her arms for warmth.

"But Jack," she started. "Every hour I spend with you I almost get hurt all the time!"

When he narrowed his eyes, she smirked slightly and kicked up some snow with her flats.

"The barfight, the motorcycle chase, Pitch's guys in that alley...there's always gonna be danger and you've made it _perfectly_ clear that you're good at trying to stop it. But don't forget I handled myself pretty well in those situations too! I can handle myself!"

But Jack didn't say anything and crossed his arms, almost looking upset at her tenacity. She rolled her eyes and looked at everywhere but his face, until she spotted something.

She grinned and rushed to the small enclave in the warehouses and picked up two wooden sticks that used to be one broom. They were well-balanced and fit to her size and she grinned when she gripped them steadily.

"Okay, okay!" she piped as she moved back in front of him and brandished them like swords. "Let me prove to you how capable I am! If I can hit even The Great Spy Jack Frost once then that means I'm quick enough, right?"

Jack blinked and leaned his weight on one foot.

"You're serious," he deadpanned. "She's serious..."

"Yeah, so come on! Let me try!" she exclaimed and glared at him as she tightened her tan hands on the wood. "I've never fought with sticks before but I'll improvise! I mean I kicked you in the shin, and I slapped you and that sorta counts," (Jack scowled) "but I have to do this...even if it's just for me!"

When she smirked and heaved a deep frigid breath, he sighed too.

He raised his gloved hand in a 'whatever-it's-your-funeral' gesture.

"Fine," he dared. "Try to hit me."

Next thing he knew, Jack's senses were telling him to twist right – so he did.

The wood she held made a loud _thuu_ through the cold air and he threw up a hand to deflect her left jab. Jack's eyes widened slightly and he parried her other stick as it snapped back. Tooth's hands were quick and her breath was heavy as she kept pushing forward on her feet but Jack blocked each pathetic hit blow for blow.

When he started to look bored, Tooth growled softly and tried positioning her feet better. She then unlocked her wrists and tried more swipes than cuts.

She was actually giving Jack a hard time to recover as she brought down a quick strike to his leg, but he still always managed to catch her each time. Tooth gritted her teeth, growing more fervent and twisted the one in her left hand to make an uppercut at his shoulder while she bent the other downwards to throw his parry off-balance. Tooth was better at swiping than jabbing and moved more fluidly on the balls of her feet. She listened to the wind around them and felt the rhythm in her sticks.

Then suddenly–_"Argh!"_

Tooth stopped instantly and pulled back as she watched Jack stumble on his left foot. He was holding his side.

She got him! Her cerise eyes widened gleefully.

"YES!" she cheered and jumped in the snow. "Yes yes yes! Haha I got you, Frost!"

"That was a cheap shot," he grumbled, recovering seconds later and standing poise and almost ready in case she attacked him again. Tooth was too busy doing a happy dance to notice though.

"It doesn't matter!" she quipped. "You lost focus for a second and I got in a hit! So there!"

'_Oh yeah, Tooth! Who's the best!' _she thought proudly. "I just proved that I CAN take care of myself."

"Stop acting like a kid," Jack said and rolled his eyes again. Tooth flipped him off before she moved giddily back to the enclave and put the wooden sticks back.

When she turned back around, Jack crossed his arms and was eyeing her funny.

She shrugged with a playful smirk. "What?"

"Are you ambidextrous?"

"Ambi-what?" She thought it was an insult.

Jack blinked slowly at first, before he shook his head and beckoned her with a finger.

"Nevermind. Come on, I don't want this North guy sending his Christmas elves to find us. Let's just get your things and head back."

"We're seriously going back?" she asked hopefully before she started walking again. "So you _do_ believe him?"

"I don't know what his game is yet. But if he's fighting against Pitch then I can at least sympathize and get you some protection."

Tooth paused.

"Does that mean you're not gonna hand me over to another criminal?"

Jack stopped.

"What? No, why would I do that?" And he stared at her openly worried by her words – his face was uncreased of frustration and Tooth's eyes widened.

"Remember your moral compass?" she mumbled and scratched her neck. "And not knowing who you worked for – the good guys or the bad guys? I was afraid back there that you'd..."

Jack looked at the snowfall at his feet and sighed.

"Princess, I already told you. Who I was back then, it doesn't matter at the moment. Yeah I want to know, but let's get you taken care of first. Then, it's Pitch turn."

When she smiled and nodded, he sent her a incredulous look.

"And what about _you? _You still gonna try to gun on me?"

And Tooth actually laughed and shook her head.

"After everything we've been through...wouldn't dream of it. Besides, I want to see him again too. I need to. You...understand, right?"

She was referring to Nicolas St. North and his band of red rascals and quiet giants. Jack nodded and they began to walk again.

As Tooth walked side-by-side with him (and humming more loudly just to get on his nerves), Jack's head was still spinning in circles.

He didn't say it, but he was impressed that the princess could hold the two pieces of wood like actual weapons without even knowing it.

...

_Twenty-four hour department store, 1:14 am_

The store really _was _open twenty-four hours.

There was only like one other shopper inside besides the few employees on the graveyard shift but it was still nice and simple. It smelled like capitalism and they played faint Christmas carols on the PA from a radio station.

With Tooth's ability to read every language, she scoured the aisles for the clothes sections and read brand names of things she'd never seen before – Jack followed silently from behind with his head tilted down the entire time. He felt uneasy being seen under the cameras since he knew he was wanted by other spy agencies.

He hoped they wouldn't get a good shot of him.

When they found the women's clothes section, Tooth beamed and cooed at all the latest things but before she dove in, she paused and waited for Jack. He stopped beside her and he lifted his eyebrows questionably.

"What?"

"H-How much did he give you?" she asked timidly and rubbed her neck. "Because I don't want to spend a lot, or _any_ of what we have really, so I want to make sure I budget what I should be lo–"

"Don't worry," he stopped her and crossed his arms. "I had enough for things like this even before he gave me the money...But with what we have now, we honestly have enough for a three-night stay at the Park Hyatt Hotel."

Tooth had never heard of it but by the look on Jack's face as he said it, she guessed it was _expensive._ She gulped but shot him a small smile and shook her head.

"Don't worry," she mumbled as she began to scan the racks. "I won't spend anywhere near as much."

"Go ahead. It's not my money," Jack said, lifting his eyebrows briefly and Tooth actually chuckled and touched his arm gently.

She smiled when he didn't flinch like he usually did.

"No thanks, I'd rather not steal like you."

And before he could say anything, she flit into the section and did what she did best.

_Minutes later_

Tooth went going around in circles with a small smile on her face (albeit a little guilty knowing her life and her sisters' was in danger, she was using a stranger's money, and seeing Jack look bored as he leaned against a beam nearby). She grabbed whatever she thought would last the longest, was the warmest, and what looked the cutest – anything to survive but that was still 'Tooth'.

But Jack walked over after about five minutes and frowned. Tooth's face instantly fell.

"Oh no, what _now?_"

He pointed at the colorful pile in her hands.

"Princess, you shouldn't wear those colors," he mumbled still in spy mode and knowing he was under cameras at almost two in the morning.

Her arms fell slightly.

"But I...I love colors," she said as she looked down at them. "That's just who I am."

"Yeah but..." Jack ran a hand through his hair, "you need to choose plain clothes that won't give you away. We need to appear as ordinary and unremarkable as possible."

"Oh...yeah, you're right," She really did pick a lot of bright colors.

What the heck was she thinking? They needed to keep to the shadows or Pitch's men could find them again – and what if Jack got spotted by the police because of her? She didn't want _that _on her conscience.

Toothiana sighed and moved to discard the really rainbow-y clothes. _'Bye bye clothes!' _she cried in her head then smiled weakly.

"I forgot," she tried to joke. "I can't be_ me_ anymore. I'm _Kat _now right?"

Jack nodded not picking up on the teasing in her tone, referring to Hue and Jack's reference to her apparent 'kitten-like' behaviour – she didn't want to admit it but when he gave her that hideous nickname it immediately grew on her.

Jack helped her after with choosing darker tones. Tooth never really wore dark clothes so had a hard time liking certain things – it was a good thing Jack had a decisive mind and helped her compromise around what she couldn't decide.

...

_Moscow streets, 2:09 am_

Jack and Tooth became two dark figures walking down the street, after they left the store.

Tooth couldn't believe that she now actually _liked_ wearing dark clothes. It was mostly because Jack once again, knew her style (consciously or subconsciously she was too afraid to ask) and what looked good and worked for her. Her outfit made her feel like a sexy librarian.

As they walked down the street, Tooth was sporting a pair of fitted, dark pants and a dark-colored turtleneck with short sleeves similar to what Jack wore when they first met. Her new boots gave her an extra two inches so she stood to Jack's ear rather than his chin and that made her immensely happy. As they stomped the sidewalk softly, she wriggled in her new socks happily from the warmth. They also exchanged her turquoise coat for a shorter, darker trenchcoat and Tooth kept on her feather earrings and the purple scarf Jack stole for her. She shoved her hands into the pockets of her coat – the store surprisingly didn't have any gloves left to sell and she fiddled with the tube of chapstick she'd just applied. The rest of the minimal items they bought (including her dress) were in her new bag.

Jack bought a black, double-breasted trenchcoat for himself and bent the collars upward to stop the wind from tickling his neck. He walked with his hands in the pockets and the front open (since he was never cold) but he kept the leather jacket in his backpack. He didn't bother to buy hair dye and was still wearing his earlier clothes and his police belt underneath. He looked taller, darker, and more spy-chic – the sight of him almost tore Tooth apart from the inside-out.

_'Stop it, Tooth!'_ she thought to herself but held in a secret smile as she looked away. As she did, Tooth frowned hungrily.

They walked past another open convenience store, and she followed the gum rack inside with her eyes until they were out of sight.

Tooth _really_ wanted the taste of spearmint on her gums...

She wanted the smell of her island, her father's old robes, the things that reminded her of home and calmed her d–

Jack suddenly flashed five 100-ruble bills in her face.

"You want something? Here, this should be enough."

And Tooth plucked the bills innocently.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, just go. I'll wait out here."

Toothiana looked up at him.

_'W...Seriously?' _she thought and her heart speed up a little as she watched him relax his stance and stare at the snow.

Jack was really willing to wait for her. So...it was true. He wasn't plotting to take her away - he wanted to go back to North, to bring her safety, and stop Pitch.

Tooth couldn't help but gaze at his pale cheekbones and how his bangs blew just above his gorgeous, brown eyes.

When he felt her stare, Jack turned to find her tender expression.

It was at that moment, feeling comfortable with him more than she'd ever felt, that she finally, _truly_ trusted that Jack really was protecting her.

"Well?" he asked without a tinge of malice or frustration.

She grinned softly.

"Thanks Jack," she mumbled and touched his arm again before she went in.

She missed how Jack watched her walk away until she was virtually out of sight.

...

A couple minutes seconds later, she came out happily chewing a stick of peppermint gum. Two extra packs were tucked safely into her coat pocket.

But when Tooth approached Jack, she found him leaning stiffly against the nearby brick wall with a paled expression on his face. She slowed the tack of her boots and scrunched her eyebrows worriedly.

"Jack, what's..." she started to say as she followed his unmoving gaze and looked down the street they just walked.

A pair of late-night officers on foot patrol were heading towards them!

Jack's breath had gone surprisingly shallow.

They were too close for Jack to just bolt into a nearby escape or they'd get suspicious, and they'd also caught his gaze so he couldn't really do much but look down and pretend to be invisible. He couldn't fight them either. Only just hours ago he was in the newspaper and then Pitch's men covered the wall with posters. Who knew where else they'd posted them and how many police men got a look at his fa–

Tooth quickly moved to him and reached up with her hand to grab his neck.

She pulled his head down until his lips were in the crook of her warm neck and her hair covered his face.

Then she pressed her lips to the shell of his right ear.

_"Put your arms around me,"_ she breathed and Jack immediately understood her motives. He wound his biceps around her small waist until his large palms were holding her steady against him.

When the officers finally approached, he shut his eyes. He tried to relax his stance but the _stress_ and the _questions_...He–

Jack froze.

Tooth began to nibble gently on his earlobe.

He felt her lips on his ear, pulling it down softly and playfully tugging on it as the cops walked by.

For a moment, he almost didn't remember they were there.

Jack kept his eyes shut and enveloped himself in the strange, electric jolt that rushed down his neck where her skin and warm breath blew. As he did, his muscles instantly relaxed and he unconsciously gripped her tighter. The sharp edges in his face softened as he leaned them back against the brick wall more.

Tooth weaved her fingers into his thick hair, completely ecstatic that she finally had an excuse to touch it...and it was so _soft. _Jack quickly imitated, moving his left hand into her dark hair to hide his glove. He twisted his face up, pretending to smell her hair while her feather earring tickled his jaw.

After a while, he didn't need to pretend. The wind and snow picked up around them as his fingers twitched anxiously.

It was the perfect move because the officers averted their eyes, not wanting to disturb the two lovers on the street, and walked right past the wanted operative and the missing princess.

Once they were out of earshot, Tooth nervously pulled away from Jack and he did the same.

His brown eyes were wide and bright and his mouth faltered a bit as the snowflakes settled on his eyelashes. When he blinked them away, his throat was still dry, his mind still numb.

The princess looked up at him, almost fearful. Her lips were full and her breath mixed a peppermint scent up into his.

The rational, left side of Jack's brain was telling him to move away, to regulate his heartbeat, and to focus on the dangers around him but Tooth's magenta eyes and dark skin inhibited his senses. He felt like he could stare at her flushed expression for hours...

"You have big ears," Tooth mumbled.

The tips of Jack's ears suddenly turned red.

Leave it her to make things awkward – especially since he _knew_ they were and that sorta made him self-conscious.

"You didn't seem so bothered by it a couple seconds ago,_"_ he tried to sneer but it came out more like he was flustered.

Tooth instantly stiffened under his hold. The blush on her face intensified.

"I-It was so they would get the _right_ idea obviously!" she squeaked. "And you weren't helping, getting all tense on me when they walked by...a-and I heard somewhere once that p-pulling on earlobes releases the same brain chemical that stimulates relaxation so I...just..."

Tooth's words just died on her lips and Jack sighed.

"Well...good call," he mumbled and tried to look away but when he caught her tongue flick out to moisten them, he found himself staring briefly.

Jack didn't understand it but there was energy there between them, low and humming like the bass in a song. Suddenly the parts of him that had been buried for so long seemed to shift...he clenched his jaw and shot the princess a frown.

**_"I can't even ca–...No...not for GUARDIANS...Emotional compromise...understand now?"_**

Jack pulled away and rubbed his eye. He'd never seen that memory before.

When it subsided, he squinted at the snow to avoid her eyes again.

"_Don't_ do that next time," he muttered unsurely. "I could've snapped your neck if I was less careful."

He quickly tried to move out of her hold but she reached up timidly and touched his ear again.

"Sorry..." she mumbled with a heavy blush. "I-I got a little chapstick on you."

Jack pulled away entirely and jerked a thumb back the way they came, but her touch still lingered on his skin.

"Come on princess," Jack urged. "Let's just get back to North."

"You know, Jack..."

He paused and looked back at her, waiting for her to continue. Tooth fiddled with the buttons nervously. She was blushing.

"You...You don't have to keep calling me 'princess'," she stated. "Especially not here since people can't know who I am."

Jack frowned. "I'm showing you respect, remember?"

And she resisted the urge to roll her eyes – he was still hung up on that night at the hotel?

"Aw, that's sweet," she said sarcastically then shrugged nervously. "But really, Jack. You can just...call me Tooth."

He would never know how much of an honour that was. She only reserved Tooth for people closest to her and right now, Jack was closer to her than he'd ever know.

But he crossed his arms.

"How 'bout just Thia? Or Katie? Can we just stick to the formalities?"

Tooth paused.

"Uh..yeah, sure. That's...cool," she mumbled and shrugged with a weak smile.

But when Jack caught it, he looked back down, almost guilty – she was offering out her hand again and he'd just...

_'Ugh, women.'_

After a moment, he sighed and Tooth looked back up.

He looked like something was causing him physical pain again as he eyed the snowflakes on her highlights. Then, Jack finally turned to look at her.

"Fine..." he said slowly then he stuck out his elbow for her. "Come on, Toothiana."

Tooth's heart did a leap. No one ever called her by her full name.

_'I can't believe it...__Jack, sometimes you're a little shit, but you're good,' _she admitted to herself._'You really are.'_

And Jack?

The brunette didn't start walking until Tooth had moved in to hold his arm.

He didn't want to admit it but as he saw her she smile to herself, his protectiveness over her transformed. He no longer wanted to just turn and walk away from her, leaving her behind to catch up.

When he was sure she had a good hold, he then moved his arm in to keep the two of them warm and walked. Their boots walked in sync down the icy sidewalk, proceeding quickly back to North's warehouse.

Now, his bodyguard status was changed.

He wouldn't let nothing, especially all this new shit, get between them and their original mission: to find Pitch _together_.

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "Kiss from a Rose" – Seal**  
**


	17. The Secret Santa Exchange

**Sorry for the strange chapter-revamps! Idk what's going on with my account but my doc manager bumped old drafts I uploaded as the finished preview and all my messages from FF strangely vanished from my email. So I'm trying to fix it now but someone maybe trying to wipe me off. (Might probably my beta cuz she's like, clawing her eyes out haha) Does anyone understand how backup email works and should I use mine as a precaution? Let me know because this is seriously nerve-wracking.**

* * *

_ELF Workshop, 2:22 am_

Jack was prompt when they returned.

He didn't let go of Toothiana's grip though and dared Nicolas St. North to make him move – not that Tooth was complaining. They'd managed to get through it undetected as North tried his best to make them feel comfortable.

The Russian knew they didn't part on good terms, especially him and the cold, American brunette so he attempted to be more gentle than he had with his men in weeks. Christmas _was_ the most stressful time of year for him when all the agents went off sleeper mode.

When he saw the two return, he turned and smiled.

He was running over a plan with a team of Elves before a loud alarm went off to signal their departure, but after they saluted and dashed into a nearby hallway, he spread his arms wide in a welcome gesture.

"You have come back! That is good, very good! I was almost afraid, Jack, that you wouldn't listen."

"You and me both," Toothiana mumbled and Jack shot her a glower before he nodded. North then looked at Tooth's new, darker outfit.

"Much better, princess!" he said approvingly and she smiled before he pointed at her bag suddenly.

"Do you still have old dress?"

"Uh, yes?"

"Good. Give to me, please."

Tooth blinked but moved quickly to take it out. When the beautiful fabric left her bag and she placed it in North's oversized palm, the two were surprised when he called Phil over.

Phil returned just before they had and was checking updates on a nearby computer. At North's call, he hobbled over and nodded at the two in greeting.

North handed him the dress.

"I would ask ELF to do it but all available ones just left for mission," he said. "Can you send to local dry cleaners for princess?"

Phil nodded and when he walked away quickly to the nearest exit, Tooth rubbed an arm and looked up.

"That was very nice of you, Mr. St. N–"

"Just North, princess," he stopped her with a kind smile. "Is what everyone calls me."

"O-Okay," Tooth replied. "Thank you...but you didn't have to send it for dry cleaning. I doubt that I'll wear it in this weather."

But North shook his head and raised an arm.

"Is no trouble, in fact, is _necessary_. You _will_ need to wear it again."

Tooth and Jack's eyes both grew wide.

"Why?" Jack asked suspiciously.

"Not here," the Russian said and he waved a hand away to dismiss it.

He moved to a nearby hallway beside one of the many beds (that both soon realized several ELF agents were using as they slept or were being patched up by their comrades) before he looked over his shoulder and threw his hand back.

"Follow me! We go to quieter place to discuss!"

Jack's face was still serious and he moved close to Tooth to speak to her.

When she felt his presence, her entire body seemed to sing pleasantly. She still couldn't get their earlier proximity and her _completely_-out-of-Tooth's-comfort-zone move out of her head, even if it _did _manage to save their tails.

The feel of Jack's bicep around her waist, _and his_ face_ in her hair,_ would forever sear into her memory.

"Stay close," he mumbled under his breath and she sighed.

At least she could count on him to pretend like it didn't happen and become the perfect, brooding, espionage worker he was again. No one needed to know what had transpired between them...and (hehe) how she'd managed to get him all flustered! That was her _own _personal achievement.

Tooth tried not to smile as she just rolled her eyes.

_"Stop it,"_ she sang. "You're getting all paranoid again."

"Why can't you ever just give me a straight answer?"

Then the two followed Nicolas.

...

_2:30 am_

He quickly ushered them down an empty, well-lit, concrete tunnel used for car getaways. Jack memorized the twists and turned perfectly until they were welcomed by a short flight of iron black stairs and led to a set of doors.

North easily went for one of the right.

He held it open for them and smiled down at him.

"_Dobro pozhalovat (Welcome),"_ he said proudly and gestured for Tooth to walk in first.

When Tooth did, her mouth dropped to the floor – this part of the warehouse _was not_ like the one they'd just left!

"Wooooow," she mumbled under her breath and looked up, mesmerised and in love.

The in-agent quarters was a well furnished area of warm reds, browns, and gold. The floor was carpeted and beautiful Russian art covered oakwood walls and floors. As Tooth looked up, three floors went all the way around the area, lined with doors for what she guessed were sleeping areas or boardrooms.

Instantly, her anxiety decreased and her comfort level went up – it was like being in a school dormitory.

Seeing the princess' expression, North walked in after Jack and moved beside her.

"Feel better?" he asked and she nodded quickly. He chuckled warmly and led them across the large carpet threshold.

"This area designed to bring down stress for my men," he explained. "You should know we are not in warehouse anymore. We are in rest workshop, ten blocks east of Tverskaya...this building is disguised from outside."

Jack ran a hand through his hair as he looked around, mildly relaxed – he had to admit, the place _did _help ease his tension and with it, he felt a little more respect growing for the bearded man. If he took care of his agents this way, then maybe he was judging him too quickly.

"So where are you taking us?" Jack finally asked as he raised an eyebrow and shoved a hand in his pocket.

"Special room," North replied as he looked ahead. There weren't any Elves around (either sleeping or away on missions) so he didn't need to stop and talk to anyone.

When North reached the end of the carpet, he led them up a wide flight of stairs and opened a special door on the left. They were back on ground level and the room inside was setup like a rest station. A simple kitchen and lower lounge area was setup before them but at the other end, was a set of stairs that led up to what Jack and Tooth saw was a loft. A few beds to sleep in were looking over the rest of the room.

Nicolas sighed. The stress of his job always shot his nerves but like the commanding officer he was, he always kept on going.

When he shut the door, a loud grunt was heard – the two turned their heads to the left.

One of Phil's officers, a yeti-lookalike was nearby counting hundreds of Russian coins on the large desk. He ignored them as he concentrated on his task.

North then suddenly whistled and out of the four doors on each side of the lounge, an ELF agent came walking through, carrying a black dress-cover. He didn't have his full uniform and wore dark cargo pants over his red shirt. He smiled immediately and nodded at his boss.

"Welcome back sir," the young man said.

North immediately walked over and put a hand on the ELF's shoulder.

"Thank you. Have you heard from shop lady?"

The agent nodded as he placed the dress cover on the kitchen's island counter and stepped back.

"Seven minutes ago, sir. She will be here in two."

"Very good. When she arrives, escort her to powder room and wait there until we are ready."

"Of course, sir!"

Then he turned and shot the princess a bright smile as he went back into the room. Tooth shot him back a tiny one but the second he vanished, she began to scratch her head.

"I...I'm really confused as to what's happening," she confessed and looked up the Russian sheepishly.

_"Gwargh!"_

When they turned, Phil's officer had his head to the ceiling with his hands on either side of his head.

_"Grumffuarmphfwagirmfh!_" he grumbled in such a guttural tone even Tooth couldn't translate what he had said. North knew instantly and threw a hand at the hairy giant.

_"Nyet! _I told you! Count in _fours!_" the Russian barked and the man cried out again. He _hated_ this assignment and wanted to be back on the floor with his crew. As he dropped his hands on the desk again, Tooth frowned slightly and watched the coins roll around.

She walked over to him and Jack turned instantly.

"Princess!"

Tooth ignored him and smiled up at the giant before looking at Nicolas and pointed to the coins.

"Is he trying to count how much this is all worth?"

"Da, princess," the Slav said before he rubbed his bald head stressfully. "We need amount soon but our best man is out so we have backlog."

Tooth turned down at the coins, reading what each silver and gold piece was with her gift.

She smiled.

"Okay then."

Next thing anyone knew, she began to group them quickly with her fingers and piled them with swift precision. Jack and the others watched as she mumbled under her breath and flit her eyes around the desk, pulling rubles this way and that.

"Woah," North commented under his breath.

Tooth was done two minutes later. She took a step back and gazed at all the glittering stacks of coins with a smile before she turned to Phil's officer.

"You have five-hundred and forty-seven rubles...and a bus token," she said gleefully and flipped the tiny coin to the man.

When he caught it, his mouth dropped.

Even Jack looked surprised.

"How did you do that?" he asked as his eyes squinted at the money. Tooth turned back to face him and North.

"I'm really good with money, especially coins," she said humbly and shrugged.

She didn't comment on it anymore after she walked back over to the two, feeling embarrassed by all the awkward stares – North had this look on his face that everyone seemed to miss. Tooth instead pointed at the dress cover on the countertop.

"I-Is that my dress in there?"

As she asked, the other giant thanked Tooth quickly before he wrote down the number and left the room through another door. Someone would pick up the coins later.

North blinked, still amazed by Tooth's skill, then he shook his head and went back to business.

"Nyet," he answered. "Is for Jack."

Jack snapped his head up from where he was still eyeing the 'other Phil' incredulously and raised an eyebrow again.

"What?"

"After you two depart from here, you will need to attend party for me. In Wales," he explained.

Tooth's eyes grew wide and Jack instantly went crazy.

'_Wales...as in England?!'_

"Hang on, we _just _met you, and now you want us to leave on _your _command?" he said as he narrowed his eyes and took a step toward the Slav.

"Is not mission," he argued sternly. "But you _will_ need to arrive there before morning. A new development gala will be hosted..."

He looked at Tooth.

"Your handmaiden is hiding where it will be held. In hotel."

Tooth's eyebrows instantly shot up into her side bangs. A set of smiling purple eyes and loud voices (one of them BT's) flashed in her head.

"Y-You know where they are?! Y–"

"Only this one, princess," he said to calm her down. "The rest are at Sandy's discretion. I try to call him while you two were out, but he never pick up. He knows where each is. Which is why I need him to call back."

Toothiana gulped a dry lump in her throat. The image of a portly, quiet, sweetheart-of-a-man she knew all her life bubbled up in the back of her mind.

"H-He hasn't?" she asked desperately and North frowned with her.

"Nyet, child. I fear he is being held up at your university."

Tooth looked down and nodded glumly.

Jack watched as she wrung her wrists together and chewed on her gum harder as a sick feeling settled into her chest and down into her stomach.

The bearded man quickly walked back around the counter and handed Jack the dress cover.

"Is this a suit?" Jack guessed as he lifted it dubiously. North nodded.

"I guess size but I think will do," he said then pointed at Toothiana. "Her dress more than elegant enough to wear again for gala but I have arranged for e–"

"Sir!" the same ELF agent from earlier called.

He popped his head out of a door that most likely led to the powder room that North was talking about.

"She has arrived."

"Good, good," he said happily then he moved to give Tooth a quick nudge in the back – but with his size and strength, it was more of a shove.

"_Izvinite (Sorry)!" _North apologized and smiled sheepishly. He forgot how rough he could be sometimes. "Princess, go sit on couch in lounge."

"W-Why?" she gasped as she tried to recover.

Before he could explain, the ELF came back out with an older Russian woman and three of her associates. They were all looked posh and were neatly dressed as two carried large brief cases. The third wheeled in a silver container with the initials _MK_ on the side.

Toothiana gulped and Jack frowned as he stepped back near to the princess. North saw their wary expressions and laughed before he reached out and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Is nothing to fear," he urged softly. "I simply call for princess assistance."

Tooth raised an eyebrow.

_'Princess assistance for _what?'

"Princess, come!" the ELF called with a smile as he sat on the couch. The other three took their respective seats in the loveseats and chairs opposite to him. When they began to open their cases and had them face the couch, Tooth bit her lip – she still couldn't see what was in them and prepare for it.

But that didn't mean she wasn't curious.

"O-Okay..."

She began to move forward.

_"Toothiana,"_ Jack cautioned and she turned nervously. Neither saw how North's eyebrows lifted surprisingly – he was on a first-name basis with the princess? Tooth seemed to realize it too as a teeny blush pleasantly came on her face.

"I-It's okay, Jack," she said and a small smile appeared on her lips. "I'll be right over there."

"Da, Jack," North said. "Besides you and I must talk."

Jack eyed Tooth's face as she nodded reassuringly. When she moved away to the lounge area, he looked down at the dress cover again.

"So why are you giving me this?" he finally asked.

"I expected you to be her escort," North said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. When Jack didn't answer, North nodded firmly.

"You did not think after what I see tonight that I do not see you are protecting her? Besides, I already see she is comfortable with you. No sense splitting you up and having more Elves sent to infirmary."

A dark look passed over Jack's face and he moved to put the dress cover back on the counter.

"I think she's getting _too _comfortable with me," he muttered and North lifted his eyebrows curiously.

"Why is that problem, Jack?" he wondered aloud and Jack rubbed his eye as he sighed angrily.

"Look, can you just–"

"_AAAHHHHHHH!_"

Jack spun instantly and rushed forward. A murderous expression erupted on his face and he was already reaching for a newly-bought knife in his police belt.

"Toothiana, what's–"

_"Oh my god, ohmygodohmygod!"_

Jack stopped running, his irregular heartbeat trying to catch up with itself.

She wasn't even looking at him – Tooth was too busy holding up a beautiful, designer bag and staring at the ELF sitting next to her.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" she cried as she squeezed it and the agent grinned down at her and nodded.

"Or no, maybe you should go with the coral-colored one," he replied and pointed back down into the briefcase

Tooth looked around at the associates to find them all smiling at her reaction. She twisted back to the ELF.

"B-But it's Michael Kors!" she sputtered. "I can't afford this on my own money and I...I-I'm not a princess for the entire year so I've never even _touched_ designer things like this so I shou–"

The agent chuckled and put a hand on her shoulder.

"It's no trouble, princess. Honestly!" he said and Tooth guessed this was why North called him specifically over because he was warm with people and had a keen eye with fashion. "A spy agency needs to have connections so their company rent out their clothes and accessories to us when we need it for high-end disguises."

"B-But..._they're so expensive!"_

"Hey, North's call. Not mine!"

Tooth was still trying to wipe her mouth off the floor as she looked back at all the open briefcases and the wheeled container. There were shoes, bags, makeup, and jewelry in so many beautiful designs and colors, she thought she'd die!

She didn't even sense Jack's hard expression on her as she cooed nervously, afraid to touch certain things.

"Besides," the ELF continued. "You are a princess and you're going to a social event so you need the right wear to blend in again." When Tooth nodded, he looked back up at North again in the kitchen.

"Sir? Do you think she will need to dye her hair again? Maybe black?"

But North shook his head.

"Nyet, it is fine. Harder to descript highlights than one-tones, remember?"

"Ah, da." He then returned his attention back to the princess and the two started picking things to go with the dress Phil took to the dry cleaners whilst also talking about Tooth's fear of guns, love for birds, and new dream to drive motorcycles. When one of the MK associates produced another, smaller case for bracelets, Jack and North immediately lost her to squeals of excitement and ignorant bliss.

She _was _a girl after all.

Jack was unaware of North's gaze on his stiff back as he moved back into the kitchen, his eyes still nervously fixed on Toothiana and the people around her.

Even if she was a girl, _he _was still needed to make she didn't drift too far.

...

_2:46 am_

Several minutes later, the associates left after Tooth made her selections. They left the items she wanted in a closed briefcase in the powder room and told her someone would help her dress later. After the whole thing was over, one of North's ELFs would return the rented accessories back to the store.

"Thank you so much for helping me!" Tooth said to the ELF, feeling bubbly and at ease all over again. Her grin was infectious and he gave her one back before he stood up and led her back to the kitchen.

"You're welcome," he replied. "You wouldn't _believe _how long it's been since we've helped disguised a woman...men have less flare and choices, you know?"

When they reached the island, he bowed slightly to Toothiana and kissed her hand. "Good luck with everything, princess."

"Take care of yourself out there," she replied warmly.

As he left, he caught Jack's questioning gaze and his boss' warm smile. "Thank you, son."

The second he did, another ELF ushered himself in with a tray of food.

'_What in the world?'_ Tooth thought as the new man came with three plates. A part of her felt guilty that maybe all this pampering for her and Jack was due to the fact that she was a princess, but also seeing how nicely he greeted each man told her that maybe North really went all out with hospitality for his agency in general.

"Rest first, you two," North said as he took one plate laid with warm cookies. "My staff short serviced tonight but I manage to get quick call. Choose: cheese omelette or sourdough bread."

Jack eyed the food suspiciously but when Tooth shot him a deadly look, he sighed and took the bread – he wanted to make sure the princess got the bigger of the two meals.

"Thank you North," she said politely as she took the other plate and the ELF left the room to return to his other (more important) tasks.

"You're welcome," he said. "And may I call you Thia?"

Tooth paused but a easy smile came to her face, to which North returned.

_Sweet baby Thia - _that's what the letters from Sanderson were always labelled as.

As the three ate quietly, North stared down at them and tried to assess their characters – he was a trained spy after all.

He stared at Tooth first with a smile. The poor girl didn't know it, but he knew her all her life and it was remarkable to him to be face-to-face with her instead of through photographs. But she was easy to read – right off the bat, her mannerisms, posture, and facial expressions gave away her character.

_Timid, curious...but also elegant, smart...not to mention charismatic with my men, much less strangers...patient and caring too._

He smiled to himself. Sandy was right, she would make a wonderful queen one day.

His keen blue eyes also noticed how immediate her body angle was to Jack – comfortable and dainty feet pointed to his legs.

'_That is good,'_ North thought. _'Even better for boy, would do him some good.'_

Then he turned to Jack and instantly he felt the man's polar opposite to the princess. While Tooth was warm and easy to read, like an openly, pleasant book, Jack was a shut door. North had a hard time reading his eyes as he ate and his face gave nothing away but a blank thought, almost hostile, stare. He kept his gaze longer on things around the room than people normally did, unafraid to stare – _high confidence_ – and his tight jaw, North guessed, was from his assessment of those things – _calculatory, determining his odds, headstrong winner._ And then he saw his fingers flex in his glove but North wasn't sure if it was a nervous twitch since Jack appeared calm and alert – _perhaps something else?_

North inwardly sighed.

But then, Tooth coughed slightly, swallowing too fast from hunger and North saw Jack's reaction.

Jack's eyelids narrowed briefly and a corner of his mouth turned down. Also, his hand froze and gripped the bread tightly – _quick reaction time, degree of preparedness_. Even after she'd recovered instantly, he still kept a hold on it before he looked away. When his eyes turned, they told North everything – _anger, exhaustion, regret...but also nervousness..._

The Slav stroked his beard quietly.

...

_2:52 am_

After they finished, Tooth rubbed her eye and a yawn slipped out. North smiled.

"If you two are tired, rest please," he and pointed up to the loft. "Plane is not ready for pickup for another hour. I would rather you rest first before I explain things further."

"Yeah, that'd be nice," Jack butt in with his jaw set apprehensively.

Tooth looked at him worriedly and reached over to touch his arm gently. The Russian was surprised when Jack did not react (so was the princess).

He shot her a look but she tossed one right back.

_Thank HIM, _she was signalling.

Really, Jack could act a bratty five-year-old when his mood turned sour – which was _always_.

But the brunette did sigh and rub his neck.

"Thank you...uh...back there," Jack tried to form coherently. Tooth rolled her eyes and kicked him under the table.

"Argh, _what?!_ I'm doing the best I can!" he seethed at her.

"No, you're not!" she whispered back.

"You know I'm not good at talking, Toothiana. So why're you forcing me to?"

"Hm."

Jack turned back at North, having heard the deep sound with his acute ears.

He glared at the Slav.

"What?"

North blinked, suddenly feeling the scrutiny under Jack's fire. He had to give the skinny man credit – when he demanded respect, he didn't have to work hard for it.

But Nicolas was an intimidating figure himself so he was not easily pushed. He glared down softly at the boy.

"You are on first-name basis with princess, is all," he said unafraid to beat around the bush.

When Jack didn't say anything and wretched his arm from Tooth's soft grip, she gulped and tried to steer the awkward conversation away from her...from the both of them, really.

"If you don't mind me asking, North," she spoke up, "It's not at the airport?"

He shook his head.

"Private jet, Thia. One of many. Used by my agents for fast missions."

As he said that, Jack's eyes grew dry and he rubbed it with his glove. When Jack refocused back on North and Tooth, he saw the princes with her hand affectionately placed on North's arm. Shen then got up and moved away from the counter.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

He had already decided that Toothiana was no longer someone he just had to bodyguard – she was his partner. But her going off alone without confirming with him still ticked him off.

Tooth turned and blinked at him.

_"What?_ I'm going to sleep because North was kind enough to offer," she pointed at the loft and North nodded behind him approvingly.

Jack couldn't understand why his tone had sounded so urgent all of a sudden. He tried a different approach.

"Well can't you sleep on the couch?" he jerked a thumb down at the lounge area and glared. "It's closer. We don't have time to pamper you."

Translation: I don't want you going off again where I can't see you because 'I'm Jack and I like to control Tooth's life'.

She rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips playfully.

"Did you not understand what my scream was for earlier?" she teased. "I'm a princess, remember? Pampering is a _requirement."_

He then pushed himself away from the counter and stepped toward her giddy expression.

"Don't get roped in so easily. You need him to _earn_ your trust, not buy it off with things he gives you," he mumbled threateningly. "Isn't that what you put me through, remember?"

Tooth automatically parted her lips...

But...

She expected that fire in her chest to flare up whenever he patronized her and even spun to face him, ready for a fight to go down.

When it didn't, she blinked at him.

Jack raised an eyebrow while North looked on peculiarly silent.

"Well?" the ex-spy insisted.

Instead, as she stared Jack's mildly sour expression, she actually...found it funny.

She shut her mouth.

The princess no longer felt the need to argue even though she was itching for a good one.

Jack was petulant, a hot mess, and _c_rush or not, she _still_ wanted to kick him in the balls. But seeing his familiar, cold squint and his strong jaw tense with aggravation...

Something about knowing that he was really protecting and that she felt comfortable with him, made all those horrible flaws she saw in other boys, made him, _him. _Made him _Jack._

So Tooth paused and, throwing Jack's expectations off, she smiled.

"Nope!" she teased. "I'm the princess, I can do whatever I want. Right, North?"

And the Russian chuckled.

"Yes Thia," he joked and Jack shot a look at him that told him he didn't find that funny.

"And what about your hands?" he demanded and Tooth squinted up at him.

"What about them?"

"From the fall in the alley? Remember, you didn't get them looked at yet."

"What're you..._Oh!"_

She looked down at her palms quickly. She'd forgotten when that Nightmare had grabbed her before North and his Elves showed up she had scraped her skin, but the pain had disappeared earlier.

"Jack, I'm fine," she shrugged and hid her hands behind her. His acute attention on her suddenly was making her dizzy.

And even more tired.

_"Too–"_

Tooth suddenly moved in to put her hand in his ungloved one. She inwardly cheered when he didn't put her in a headlock, reassuring herself that maybe her stunt earlier made him more used to her.

"Do I _look_ like I'm in pain? Like it's hurting me?"

Jack frowned against her touch. The twitch in his fingers wanted to grip her small hands for confirmation, for comfort...but he willed his muscles not to.

_"No,"_ he said and immediately let it drop.

"So then just give me peace, _please? _Leave me alone for like, twenty minutes!"

She then, not so ladylike of her, smacked him across the arm.

"And for once in your life, stop trying to control everything."

Jack reacted instantly but Tooth quickly moved away, not giving a rat's ass if he was going to try and stop her again.

When she was sure there was enough cover distance between them, she turned back at him one, final time.

_"Goodnight,_ Jack," she said looking up with a pointed (tired) smile to which Jack did not obviously return.

Toothiana made a quick, embarrassed bow to Nicolas.

"And goodnight to you, North. _Thank you,"_ she mumbled kindly and scurried for the nearby stairs.

Once she was at the top and had taken off her dark trenchcoat and scarf, the princess laid on one of the beds and curled up in the white sheets. She couldn't see Jack or North from the angle she twisted in (also the white guardrail around the loft to keep people from falling over was blocking her view) and fell asleep instantly.

...

_3:00 am_

"Do you not wish to rest too?" North finally spoke up, happy the princess was resting.

Jack, as he predicted, shook his head.

Jack was leaning against the kitchen guardrail with his arms crossed, staring up at Toothiana as she slept.

"I don't need to," the brunette mumbled – the nap he'd gotten on the airplane was more than enough to keep him going for the next four days. He also didn't want to eat, and promptly discarded the sourdough bread North had offered him as Tooth ate.

He just couldn't understand how she could be so calm about all this when he kept trying to remind her of strangers ruining their lives and hostile situations. For Christ's sake, two hours ago he had an infection done on by Pitch! _she _didn't but that still didn't give her clearance to run around and be merry.

It have Christmastime for the rest of the world, but certainly not for them.

'_I swear,'_ he mentally growled. _'Every second I'm with her, I lose a year off my life!' _And he rubbed his eye again as North watched.

Now that Tooth was gone, the Russian looked down at Jack seriously. He mumbled knowingly.

"You should take out contacts now."

Jack froze and looked up at the Russian vehemently. He clenched his jaw in response but the older man merely shrugged.

"I knew straight away," he explained. "You cannot hide secret from other agent who shared similar dilemma. I do not wear mine anymore, but I can tell you have worn yours for long time."

Jack glared at the man and crossed his arms defensively.

"No thanks," he grumbled. "Not with you here."

North shot Tooth's sleeping form a quick look.

"Does she know?"

Jack didn't reply, so North nodded understandingly and moved around the island again to sit on one of the barstools.

"That is probably for best, then," he said sincerely as his enormous weight made the chair squeak loudly. Jack eyed him with a guarded gaze before he raised an eyebrow.

It was weird to Jack to see Nicolas, having been the epitome of a loud and grand ruler minutes ago in the other warehouse, to this quiet, reserved juggernaut. He even still managed to hold this demanding figure that even trumped Jack's, and it made the brunette feel small for the first time in a long time.

When North caught Jack's look out of the corner of his twinkling blue eye, he frowned and weaved his large fingers together.

"I trust you have not told her anything about the company," he said.

"I never mentioned a company," Jack muttered. "At least not yet..."

_"But you know the language?"_ North said, switching to the secret tongue. He narrowed his eyes and Jack copied.

___(Луна) _"So?" the brunette spat. _"That doesn't prove anything."_

"_Trust me, boy. It does. Only select few were taught this – and so far only you and I can understand each other."_

North then sighed and abruptly stood up, walking to the phone again and dialing a code in. "Watch," he dared and Jack leaned on one foot apprehensively.

After several rings, he lifted the receiver to his lips.

Suddenly, the PA system turned on over their heads and Jack listened as North made an announcement for all the Elves and officers to hear – but he didn't speak in Russian.

___(Луна)_ "Jeen unya!" he said curtly. _"Tet clesya nam protoveen. Meenya kuvre gret setyano freur valya. Janyo van!"_

Jack raised an eyebrow – he easily understood.

* * *

_My men! You may leave tonight. Agency is shutting down due to Nightmare invasion. You are fired!_

* * *

The second he put the receiver down, the phone's twenty-something lights lit up with callbacks from all the ELF agents and supervisors – one even PA'd the boss back.

_(Russian) "URGENT call to Chief. Miscommunication on public message. Requesting repeat for clarification."_

North raised both his hands with a cheeky smile.

"See?"

Jack didn't want to believe it, but when Phil's garbled voice came on the PA to repeat the request again, his eyebrows lifted. Even his own second-in-command,_ his partner, _didn't understand what the Russian had said!

Jack actually frowned.

"Only you and I?" he mumbled so only they two could hear and North nodded, reassured.

"But Phil...Back in the alley, he said 'I could be another'...he knows–"

"He is only one who knows of company, but not language. Is not like you or I."

_"Just_ him?"

"Da."

"Why?"

"He used to work for them too but was not GUARDIAN...Only knew of program after, _through_ me."

Jack squinted his eyes gently and tried further to understand.

He flexed his fingers in the invisible cross breeze of the vents.

"It's...It's Луна...That's what it's called, right?"

North gave Jack a little, encouraging smile. He then dialed a service code into the phone to disregard the public message – immediately all his men's calls stopped blinking.

"_Set. (Yes)," _he answered. "We learn it as requirement of GUARDIAN program. I know you must not remember though."

Jack's eyes widened, suddenly feeling that familiar rush of desperation...of something about to slip through his fingers if he didn't catch it fast enough.

When North sat back down again, he looked at Jack.

"What do you remember, Jack?" he finally asked. He made sure his voice was soft and baritone so no one else could eavesdrop. "About the company?"

Jack bit the inside of his cheek as he saw the Russian's perceptive gaze study his face. After some mental warring, he decided that trying to hide anything from the one man with all the answers was the worst decision he could make. With a quick glance at the sleeping princess, he frowned back to North.

It was now or never...Jack kept a grip tightened on his knife's handle under the table in his belt.

"I...I don't," he mumbled under his breath. North smacked his lips together before Jack continued.

"But how did you know I didn't? How come you know so much about me?"

"How come? I tell you how come. Because of what I saw in alley...that wind. I believed you to be spy from another agency, come to help us, but then we fought together. You know this part too."

And Jack nodded – he _did_ remember. That combo kill that he and North performed together...it felt too rehearsed. Jack glared at the countertop.

"Have we...ever met before, you and I? Did we once fight together like that?" he asked hesitantly but North shook his head.

"I still remember working there, but cannot remember you," he admitted and dashed Jack's hopes. "But that move was specifically trained of agents in one special division: _Winter._ Is how I knew we were from same place."

And Jack looked up at him, with wide maple-brown eyes and an open mouth.

"So..." he started slowly, afraid to lose all the realness of this moment – the senses, the weight of the words, the Russian's steady exterior indicating his truthfulness.

"So we really _are..._you know where I, and who we worked for?"

"Da."

"But what happened?!" Jack demanded softly so as to not wake Tooth. "What did we _do? Who_ did we fight for?"

Jack gulped uncharacteristically and began the pace. His feet pressed the concrete gently and fluidly, footfalls silent like a stalking cat but his mind was focused elsewhere.

He finally had more puzzle pieces in his hands and the pressure of his guarded life was lessening slightly. But he was still scared – of the Russian, of his past, of _himself._

North saw his. He frowned deeply.

"Look there," North interrupted sternly and lifted his finger. Jack turned.

He was pointing at Tooth.

"Everything about her you are protecting..._Is a light._ People like her. She represents little piece of everything worth fighting for. _Especially_ from danger...from threats like _Pitch."_

Jack didn't say anything as he stared at her dark tufts of hair high above.

The Slav saw Jack's expression fall.

"Do you see?" North asked softly to Jack and his thick eyebrows furrowed together hopefully. "Some make it their duty to watch over the people of the world and keep them safe. That is what we once did...But now that company is gone, is still what I want, is _my mission_, what my men do. For as long as people have something to believe in – a family, a dream, a future...we wish to guard them with our lives. And good or bad, naughty or nice, we protect them."

Tooth rolled subconsciously in her asleep.

When she did, a flicker of understanding went off behind his eyes and his glare suddenly lessened – he remembered her tears for her loved ones...that feathered hairtie she still kept on her wrist...her smile whenever things seemed to go right while he scowled and doubted them...

_A family, a dream, a future..._

He sighed deeply as the feelings, like gravel in his stomach, churned softly and became easier to consume.

Jack wasn't easy to break, and yet the Russian's words and his big, expressive eyes seemed to pin him down. He guessed that North had a knack for persuading people and that's why he was the one in charge.

"I hope now you are willing to understand, young man," North said and glared down firmly at Jack. "We are both 'good guys' as they say."

But his praise turned sour on Jack's ears. The ex-operative looked away.

"I'm uncomfortable with that label," he muttered and Nicolas pulled back. He crossed his arms.

"Why?"

Jack looked down at his leather glove and made a gentle fist. He softly glared at his pale wrist, blinding him from where it peeked outside his trenchcoat's sleeve.

"I'm not like you," he mumbled. "I never...Until she showed up, I didn't do any good, _for anyone._..Only myself."

North didn't say anything but Jack still found it surprisingly (and strangely) easy to confess that with the Slav.

"I don't deserve that, Nic," he looked away, "I'm just here to help _her_ and shut that son of a bitch down."

"But ah, see that fire? That care? You motivate her to keep fighting, and still, she stays with you," North said softly and moved around the table.

He then risked placing a hand on Jack's shoulder...the brunette tensed, but he didn't jerk away. Instead, he put his knife back into his belt.

Jack looked up at him.

"In this life," North continued. "We can choose to lie down when we fall. Or, we can rise again. Then, we lead by example and inspire through our activities. Do you think I was always this nice? _Nyet,_ before company, before GUARDIAN program, I was naughty. Very naughty!"

He laughed deeply to himself before he pointed a finger at Jack sternly.

"But I _choose_ to rise after hardships. And so did you, despite what horror you see before."

Jack eyed him weirdly.

"How would you know?"

"Because I feel it," he said and pulled back before he patted his gut with both hands. "In my belly."

Jack blinked slowly before he sighed and rubbed his eye. He looked at the doors around the room.

Jack was still grateful they'd talked but now they needed a change in conversation – and normally he heated to start conversations because he was always terrible at continuing them. But he needed to know more – this might be the only chance he and the bearded chief might get.

And...it felt oddly nice to the brunette to have the older, wiser man talk to him with such faith and wonder. He reminded Jack of a father-figure or a grandfather who intimidated you but respected.

"So..." he said with a low whistle. "How did you do that thing...you did back there?"

North looked down at him with a warm smile.

He gestured Jack down into the lounge and the two sat promptly. Jack sat in the loveseat, making sure his vision was angled to the princess at all times. North sat in the armchair adjacent to him.

"It is my gene," the bearded man explained. "My Center Gene, like yours but very much different. I cannot control element like wind. Only people."

"_People?"_ Jack repeated and furrowed his dark eyebrows. "How is that–"

"Do I ask how you control wind, boy? _Nyet._ Is just what my Center Gene gave me, the ability to amplify one's deepest desires and use it to control their actions. Is how I keep some ELFs under loyalty to cause. _No slipups_...But I apologize again that it affected the princess."

When North frowned sadly, Jack found it hard to be mad with him. Instead of having to show him his forgiveness, Jack looked around the room.

He pursed his lips thoughtfully.

"Was that all it gave you?" he asked slowly.

"Also these," he said and lifted his fists, to which Jack stared at. "Remember block that almost hit you? I can punch through any thick surface. Is very efficient _but loud_. I do not use much. And all else – speed, strength, endurance...like you, I trained to become before GUARDIAN program."

When Jack nodded, North put down his buff biceps and tilted his head.

"Why did you follow my ELF in Belarus?" he asked and Jack lifted his head. He hoped the subject of the dead ELF wouldn't come back.

"I thought I...I thought he was working for Pitch," Jack admitted slowly. "He had these yellow eyes...but then he recognized me, so I thought he might've been from the company. But I know now that's impossible since only you and I were f–"

"_Nyet,_ Jack. He was one of us too."

Jack stopped instantly.

"He was?"

North nodded somberly and looked at the glass coffee table between them.

"Like I said before. Was an old friend of mine...and another GUARDIAN agent. 'ELF' was his original codename, we used it for rest of agents here when new company was built. He was on courier mission for me, delivering something to Punjam Hy Loo Prime Minister at gala event, on behalf of Sanderson."

Jack's eyes grew wide.

* * *

_"__You..._" the agent managed to expel. His voice grew more gurgled. "_I-I kn-...I kno-y-!_"

_..._

_"__What?"__ he asked starkly. __"What did he take?"_

_But the dying man continued to pat his coat frantically, gasping for more air._

_"Th-pri! Ne-eed to w'n th-pri-!"_

* * *

"He was meeting Prime Minister Bangkot?" Jack mumbled. "For the princess' caregiver?"

"Da," North agreed. "But Pitch found out and intervened. He stole what needed to be delivered."

Jack then shot a dark look at the floor.

He remembered searching the dead man's pockets and finding a large pocket that looked like something used to be in it.

"I could've stopped him," Jack said bitterly to himself and North looked back at him with a firm gaze.

"Nyet, Jack," he said earnestly. "You did not know. And Sanderson always make backup plan so it was not complete loss."

Jack looked up after a while and gave the Russian a heavy look.

"Has the princess' private tutor always been involved with you? In all of this?"

North did not want to say and his forehead creased with wrinkles as he put his hands on his brawny knees.

"All I will say, Jack," he grumbled, "is that Pitch and Sanderson have had long, bad history together, but that is not the point. The point is now you know where you come from and what matters is that Pitch be stopped once and for all."

And when Jack nodded, something in his chest flared awake. Like the heart of a lion, Nicolas' heart, Jack felt a positive energy surge through his veins.

He felt enriched, not weighed down by the feeling.

North's words, his equal hatred for the British terrorist, and knowing Toothiana (and him, in a small way) were connected to all these morally-bound allies, made the tempest in his heart and in his head calm down. He felt like he had come up for air for the first time in such a long time all thanks to North and his immediate faith in him – he also couldn't deny the kindred feelings he felt for the older man.

Jack's shoulders relaxed visibly and North held in a smile, pretending not to notice.

'_Maybe it's true,' _Jack thought cautiously as he blew a cold breath between his thin lips. _'Maybe...maybe I did for the good side_._'_

Jack desperately wanted to believe so.

"But..." Jack wanted to ask to confirm it. "How are we all connected?"

North took this chance to smile mischievously, the twinkle in his blue eyes glinting again back at Jack.

"There are 'many of us', Jack, but is not place to tell," he said cryptically and when Jack titled his head, North shook his.

He leaned over and pointed his finger at the brunette again.

"Jack, if you want to figure out for self, you must go back to the place where everything started for you. Only _that_ is how you will remember."

Jack's heart began to race beyond his control.

There _was_ a chance...to remember?

"B...Why? Why can't you just tell me?" North only shook his head.

"I cannot, truthfully I cannot," he said then in a low mumble he spoke again. "Company is disbanded now, Jack. No more agents work there...they all vanish."

Jack leaned in too, his eyebrows furrowing and his forehead creased with anxiety. He was finally getting answers to things he'd been wanting to know for months!

"They vanished?"

"_Set (Yes)," _North said. He decided to switch to Луна so only he and Jack could speak.

_(Луна) " Only I and two others got out before shutdown. The rest in Project GUARDIAN, like you, undergo Defragmention. Memory wipe...more like scramble."_

"_But...why?"_

"_Is not obvious?" _North answered bitterly. _"Something went wrong. We knew too much."_

Jack's throat grew dry as all those conversations in his head, about people wanting to transport him, cam bubbling back up like hot tar. He couldn't believe what he was hearing...what he feared to believe all along.

His past _was_ dark. And now, it was broken too and slowly washing away like footprints on a beach.

North continued.

_"But there is..still hope, Jack. For those who have recovered memories...like you. Scientists defragmented every agent's memory differently. So would not be easy to piece together. But you can retrieve it, if you go back."_

_"Go back?...Back to the company?"_ Jack asked slowly, still trying to understand the depth of this confession.

But when he swallowed a heavy lump in his throat, North shook his head.

_"Nyet, the place where it all began – what you remembered first. But you do not have to, son,"_ North comforted gently and moved to stand. Jack followed the action but on slightly jellied legs, his mind still spinning from all these new crossroads opening up.

When the two were upright, the Russian put a hand Jack's shoulder again.

"Perhaps you would like to join my intelligence agency and become GUARDIAN again," he offered but even though it was appreciated, Jack shook his head firmly and flat out refused.

"Thank you, North, but being a GUARDIAN is the last thing I want. I...think it destroyed me."

North nodded humbly and pursed his lips.

"It has destroyed many of us. But you would still like to retrieve old memories, da?" he asked and the ex-operative nodded his head without hesitation. North sighed.

"I respect your decision, Jack. But do not forget...Remembering means opening old wounds," he said wisely. "Had you done something terrible before Defrag, may destroy you now. Promise you will think about my suggestion in future."

After a pause, Jack looked North straight in the eye and nodded steadily. His respect and trust for the bearded man settled pleasantly in his heart like wet cement. The man maybe big, loud, and intimidating, but North was courageous and also very kind, even if he did get heated under stress.

Suddenly–

_Boom! _A heavy pound went off in one of the rooms.

...

_3:19 am_

North quickly reacted and spun.

As he did, Phil came through one of the doors having finally returned from the dry cleaners. He had a heavy sheen of sweat around his nose and under his fur cap. The princess' dress was gripped in his gloved hand and he looked wild.

"What is wrong?" North demanded.

Phil went off with a garbled response of fluttering hands and angry outbursts. When he was finished, North's eyebrows shot up his forehead like rockets.

"_Oy nyet..."_ North mumbled before he spun on Jack and pointed at him.

"Wake up Princess Toothiana!" he ordered, falling back into the role of commanding officer.

"Why!? What did he–"

"Now! _Idti! (Go!)_" North shouted and moved into another room quickly with Phil. As they did, North pressed a tiny Bluetooth complink in his left ear and called ahead to one of his Elves.

Jack gritted his teeth and wasted no time taking the stairs to the loft.

He used a French-parkour technique and ran straight towards the high wall. He performed a tic-tac wall climb before he pushed off with the ball of his foot to reach the top. When he caught the ledge with one hand, Jack used his upper body strength to pull himself up and grabbed the rest of the guardrail. When he reached the rest of the way, he flipped over Tooth's bed and landed on the floor beside it.

Jack spun and shook her shoulder.

"Princess! Toothiana, come on! Wake up!" he barked softly and she immediately woke up.

"Wh...Jack?" she grumbled and rubbed her eye. _"What_ is your pr–"

"Something's happening," he interrupted her and grabbed her coat and scarf before tossing them to her. "North wants you to get up _now!"_

"O-Okay," she answered more awake now by the urgency.

Tooth flung the sheet aside and clumsily threw on her coat and scarf. When she got them on and rushed quickly down the loft's stairs, she watched Jack perform an underbar vault through the guardrail and drop over the edge instead.

"Show off," she grumbled tiredly as she huffed and jumped the last three steps to reach the ground.

When she jogged back to Jack, North and Phil returned from the other room with the silver suitcase that the MK associates had left for Tooth and another two black suitcases that were small and compact.

"Quickly!" he ordered to Phil and the two men proceeded to open the cases.

"I wish I had had more time to explain to you both. But is no time left," North explained as he began to take three small items from each suitcase.

"Why?" Tooth asked. "What's happened?"

North growled angrily.

"Phil was followed by Russian spy agent. _Interpol_. They photo-ID'd dress he brought from cleaners as similar to one you wore to Bangkok gala."

Tooth's eyebrows rose.

"B-But I don't understand!" she exclaimed. "That doesn't even make any sense! Both dresses were completely different and–"

"Is same color, same fabric. And in Russia, spies track _everything_ the same," North stopped her and shot Jack a glare. "I told you to be careful."

Jack tightened his fist and moved to Tooth's side.

"And they know I'm here," he finally admitted.

North froze. He narrowed his eyes threateningly.

_"что?_ _(What?)_" he hissed and Jack ran a hand savagely through his hair.

"In the newspaper," he bit out. "I'm wanted by other agencies and they suspected I landed here several hours ag–"

_"PROKLYATIYE (DAMNIT), _JACK!" North shouted angrily. "If they see you with princess–"

"ARGH I _KNOW!_ So...So what do we do?" he asked, giving North complete reins on this course of action since they were in _his_ workshop. Tooth would've smiled proudly up at him, but her anxiety had come back and she kept fiddling with the gum still in her pocket.

"Interpol is here to check premises," the Slav explained and walked back around the counter to them. "They never find secret door to this room or rest of agency – is well hidden by toys I create. But you must take her _now_ as precaution! So head back to tunnel and find Overpass 9. I already have car for you to take. My ELF will wait for you on private runway for plane. Coordinates are in car. Windows are tinted."

"Why doesn't one of your men just take us to him?" Tooth tried to argue, still baffled by all this madness. "Can't _he_ just drive us there?!"

"Nyet Thia," North argued. "Russian Interpol will spot you the minute you leave this place. You need fast driver," then he eyed Jack, "and Jack, you specialize high-performance, da?"

Jack's eyebrows lifted. "How did you know?"

North patted his belly, talking about his _gut_ feeling. "I trust belly. I know you will make it there, but I will send Elves to intervene should chase get too close."

Tooth's mouth fell open again. _'There's gonna be a chase?!'_ she mentally cried. _'But I didn't even get a full half-hour of sleep!'_

As she was ranting to herself, North finally walked up to Jack and gave him something short and cold from one of the briefcases.

It was a short, black rod but was very easy for him to grip.

Jack frowned.

"What the hell am I supposed to do with this?" he scowled and looked up the Russian. North pointed at a spot on the short rod and smiled briefly.

"I remember you broke baton," he indicated from the earlier fight with Pitch's Nightmares. "I figure this is _hundred times_ better."

After Jack fiddled with the short bar for a couple of seconds, his thumb pressed some unknown activator near the near centre and it glowed electric, blue. Next thing anyone knew, the bar stretched into a six foot staff of pure titanium.

"HOLY CRAP!" Tooth cried and jumped back. Even Jack pulled away a bit before he immediately moved in again to inspect it.

As he glanced at it intensely, loving the look and feel of it in his hands, he gazed back up at North quickly.

"You're giving this to me?" he asked slowly and North nodded with a small smile.

"Is one of best inventions I ever designed, and only prototype my scientists ever built successfully. I want you to have."

"Wow..." Jack mumbled and twisted it sideways easily to run his ungloved hand against the smooth steel – it felt almost natural in his hold...like he'd used one before and was being reacquainted with the feeling again.

Jack looked up suddenly.

"I remember using something like this, back at the company during the GUARDIAN program," he said and eyed the Russian suspiciously. "Did you use your gene on me?"

North shrugged nonchalantly and ignored Jack's disturbed look as he handed him a tiny complink – it was much less noticeable than what Pitch's men had used.

"This is to only be used in emergencies! You can reach me anywhere in world," he instructed Jack and the brunette eyed him firmly. "But only call _once_ for me and ELFs will be dispatched. We cannot risk trace call."

When Jack nodded, Tooth moved forward to Jack's new weapon again and eventually cooed at the sleek design – she immediately decided it suited him.

"Wow, Jack," she mumbled as she reached out to poke it. "Imagine all the damage you could to a Nightmare with this thi–"

Her finger accidentally activated another hidden trigger and when the button glowed again, the top end of the staff extended into a large, Sheppard's hook with a deep, humming noise. The two of them freaked.

"What is _that_ for?!" Tooth asked and North smirked at Jack.

"Close combat," he simply stated. "Is also _very _strong, like steel. Will hold weight of up to 230 pounds – much less than me though!"

And when the Russian chuckled deeply, Jack, despite the bewildering shock, shot North a tiny (grateful) smirk.

"I won't let you down," Jack said firmly and North smiled before he looked at the princess.

"And this, princess. Take this," he said and handed Tooth what looked like a small semi-circle tube made of gold and painted different colors. "You must give it to the ELF that is with your handmaiden. He will know what to do with it. Make sure Pitch's men _do not find out about it._"

Tooth blinked down at it carefully before she frowned up at him.

"North, wh–"

Suddenly the _boom_ went off again and North flinched.

"No time! GO!" he ordered and the two shoved their new toys into their pockets and went to grab their bags. But North stopped them.

"Leave them! I will have another ELF bring them to plane – no IDs on you!"

Jack immediately understood and with trust finally in the Slav, he reached into his pocket and pulled out their passports to give to the Russian. North read each quickly and nodded firmly.

_"Da," _he confirmed. "Jack, I will have friend retrieve old bank accounts under your codename."

"What?" Jack shook his head and the Russian turned quickly, feeling strapped for time.

"All agents from old company left accounts open under each codename. If yours, JACK FROST, still exist, I have him reactivate so you can use it."

"Seriously?"

Jack couldn't believe it – all his old records and his own money would be returned to him?! But North didn't confirm.

"Now head to car and hurry! You must meet handmaiden and my ELF in Wales before they station to hide again."

"Wow," Tooth breathed as Phil went into the room and looked up at Nicolas. She moved to him and smiled.

"You're like, Santa Claus, giving us all the toys we wanted for Christmas! Thank you..." she said as she touched his arm gratefully, actually sad to leave him.

And North smiled with a twinkle in his electric blue eyes again.

"I have been called so before," he said secretly.

Jack suddenly flinched slightly.

_**"...n-nner divisi...sio...Dia'sis co–et–plete...complete."**_

A whole slew of memories suddenly flashed in his head.

_**"Dia-alysis complete...T-This agent's progress report in-indicates that he is best...est suited for m-m-missions with strict countdowns–"**_

"Now hurry, you two!" North urged them back the way they came and began to roll down his sleeves over his tattoos. "I must stall and deal with them as long as I can!"

A third _boom_ was heard as Tooth and Jack crossed the room. When Jack was a couple steps away from the door, he paused to turn to look back at Nicolas.

_**"Russia...th-the North wind I c...par-part of the Winter division! A trainer hah–I am in charge of-f the dr-dr-dropoff for you agents today!"**_

Tooth eyed his hesitation and touched his arm.

"Jack?" she urged with worried eyes. Her pink gaze filled his senses and brought him back. Jack shook his head and frowned.

"You okay?" she asked quickly.

Jack turned instead to look at North before he left the room.

_"Spasibo! (Thank you)"_ Jack called and North paused in the doorframe before he gave the brunette a stern nod.

_"Udachi,"_ the bearded giant said and Tooth smiled back at him too, understanding what he'd said: _Good luck. _Then he vanished behind the door, after his partner.

When Jack turned to look at Tooth, she nodded quickly. They grabbed each other's hands and both sprinted out of the room, across the living quarters, down the iron staircase, and back into the hollow tunnels to look for Overpass 9.

It didn't take long to find it after a couple twists and turns but when they did, Tooth's jaw dropped.

Overpass 9 was a giant, underground parking lot with an alarm going off overhead. At least fifty ELFs dressed in their red uniforms were dashing around, getting into cars. When one pulled up beside them near the exit tunnel, he hit the brakes and got out, ready to give it to Jack.

North had set them up with a slick, black car – but Jack knew one better.

It was a Noble M600 with a twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V8 engine that clocked in at 225 mph.

He smirked devilishly.

_**"Welcome to the Gunner division, boys!"**_

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "F.U.Y.A." – C2C **Big thanx to Lauraenretard (via tumblr) for recommending me this awesome French band!****  
**


	18. Ride or DIE!

**Again, big thanx to my papa for teaching me to drive stick – it helped alot with this chapter, along with all the cop videos on youtube and maps of Moscow I had to study...I swear if someone finds my laptop they're gonna think I'm trying to pull off a heist or something...No regrets! Haha and thanx as always to u guys for enjoying the ride. (: This is the end of the Red Arc (North's character arc) in the story (finally phew!) and if you notice, the Blue (Jack) and the Pink (Tooth) are the constant under-arcs...but whose to come next? ;)**

* * *

"_**Chczz**_**–This Is ELF 506."**

_(Russian) "GIVE US JACK FROST!" _the cops cried outside. Their Interpol partners were already stationed with powerful rifles and armoured vans outside North's building.

_**Ddddrrrmmmm...**_

"**Welcome to Overpass 9, Rudolf Svet (Rudolph's Light), the last of nine tunnels beneath Moscow."**

Jack pressed his forefinger to the onboard touchscreen. He watched as the GPS activated and had already set coordinates to Sheremetyevo Airport, north of Moscow. It looked like an upside-L diagonally running up from the center of Moscow where they were.

"**Be ready."**

_**Ddrrrmm...dddrrrmmmm...**_

_(Russian) "Nyet! You have already seen th–"_

"_North! We know he is somewhere! Airport cameras DO NOT l–"_

"**Russian undercover law enforcement has already sealed off three blocks around North's workshop. You will need to lose them the second you exit the tunnel."**

They always got called to North's region for weird activity they'd received over the hotlines – strange men coming and going in red clothes yet no one got a picture, blood and tire marks that would vanish in the morning, a loud explosion...the list went on! But now there was an internationally wanted criminal possibly around and they couldn't take precautions...so Nicolas' strange toy company (an obvious front) was under suspicion of harbouring the fugitive.

"**Should you need assistance, ELFs will leave on chief's command." **

Tooth stared at the touchscreen from the passenger seat. She clasped her hands together, heart pounding quicker than the North's departure sirens. The sound of hundreds of red ELF agents pounding the ground in their combat boots around their car woke up whatever lethargy she had left in her system she had left from her nap.

"**Good luck. Though North says, you do not need it.****–**_Chzzc!_"

Then the message cut out and the entire touchscreen (along with the GPS)blacked out.

_"What?!_ No!" Tooth cried.

The screen did eventually come back...except, the only thing it showed was a strange word in Cyrillic that kept changing.

**...**** тр****и****ста ****шестьдес****я****т...**

With her gift, Tooth could translate.

**...**** тр****и****ста ****пятьдес****я****т ****д****е****вять...**

_**...**_** тр****и****ста ****пятьдес****я****т**_** в**__**о **__**семь...**_

_**(...360...)**_

_**(...359...)**_

_**(...358...)**_

Her cerise-coloured eyes widened.

"I-It's a countdown?!" she cried. "To what?! Self-destruct?!"

_**...**_** тр****и****ста****пятьдес****я****т **_**семь**__** (357)...**_

"No," Jack narrowed his eyes and gripped the wheel with his leather glove. "It's a timer. The aiport is a cover up. We're not really going there."

_**...**_** тр****и****ста ****пятьдес****я****т **_**шесть**__** (356)...**_

"Th-Then where _are_ we headed?!"

"Wherever that GPS tells us once it hits zero. But it's up to _me_ to make sure we last that long."

_**...**_** тр****и****ст а****пятьдес****я****т ****пять**_** (355)...**_

Tooth looked at him bewilderedly. How was he...understanding all this? And yet...she gulped and looked back through the windshield as she buckled herself in. The lukewarm air blowing through the car vents prickled her cheeks like electricity and rustled her hair, but Tooth couldn't deny the building restlessness in her bones.

_**(...354...)**_

"W-Well...time to get serious, Jack."

And without hesitation, Jack released the clutch and moved into _2nd_ gear. As he eased on the brake, he shot her a look.

_**(...353...)**_

"Not this time," he countered. "We're gonna have a little fun instead."

He then hit the gas hard.

The car shot like a bullet as Tooth flew back against her seat.

Soon the tunnel and all its lights were like a blur as the Noble thrummed to life behind their boots and glided like a dark bat, its shining body a glint to all the other agents watching impressively from the lot.

"J-Jack!" Tooth gasped but the brunette didn't say anything.

The sound of the powerful hydraulics, the sharp prick of cold in his lungs, and the smell of gasoline in the tunnel fuelled his heart like the engines in front of him, magnificent and metallic..

And the tunnel lights continued to blink out faster and faster until–

_**(...352...)**_

_**Ddrrrmmm!**_

The police turned their heads the same time, Jack saw them through his tinted window and a corner of his mouth turned up.

_**(...351...)**_

"_Let's play, boys."_

Then with a quick downshift into _1st _he made the scariest right turn Tooth had ever experienced in her life!

When he hit the accelerator, the Noble tore down the street away from them!

_**350**_

"OHH NOT AGAIN!" Tooth cried as her entire body knocked against him.

The car was _fast!_ Faster than either of them were prepared for – but unlike the princess, Jack was more than happy to take control of it.

_**349**_

"Toothiana, get off!" he barked and he nudged her off him. He saw her watch as all the lights and buildings outside their car looked like they were being sucked away by a vacuum.

"SORRY!"

_**348**_

Jack didn't say anything as he drew up a mental picture of Moscow's immense transit network. It would've been _impossible_ for anyone – but Jack wasn't _anyone_ and he'd had the time. He had to come back to Russia SIX times during his 'wanderlust' just to memorize the crazy grid of the city and now that he did, he was more than itching to show up the federal police!

When Jack heard their sirens come to life as he kept speeding away, he smirked.

_**347**_

Reaching of the street, Jack turned sharply right and headed east on Sadovaya, a long winding road that would lead them away from the heart of Moscow.

"JACK!?" she squealed as he manoeuvred the car through a red light and expertly dodged other drivers as he drove into their lanes. The cars stopped and honked angrily, giving their position away to the cops.

_**344**_

_**343**_

Tooth wouldn't know how busy his mind was working with the way he looked so calm and detached.

"It's only half an hour away," he replied steadily as he kept switching gears and weaving through the cars. "So CALM DOWN."

But it was harder to swerve a supercar than a motorcycle so Tooth feared more than twice that they would hit something and die.

As they drove up the four-lane road and nicked a cab on the way, she cried out and splayed her palms against the dashboard. The orange streetlights over them were starting to make her dizzy the faster they kept coming and when Tooth tried to look out the window, Jack made a particularly tight twist and she ended up smacking her forehead against the glass.

"OW! Jack, I swear to god, don't_ tell_ me to _calm down!_" she cried. "I CAN'T WHEN I'M WITH YOU!"

Jack ignored her and kept looking at the streets with controlled sight, counting the blocks ahead and staring at the familiar buildings. As he passed a familiar landmark, he quickly moved the Noble into _3rd_ gear.

Soon, a main intersection would come up and he'd have to execute a perfect left turn into its tiny street to get on the–

_BOOM!_

"AHH!" Tooth cried as she flew forward and Jack's eyes widened. His heart pattered violently for a moment under his chest, fingers twitching with a jolt of surprise before he briefly let go of the wheel to push her back.

A cop car came out of nowhere from behind and rammed into them!

_**336**_

Jack eyed the rearview mirror with a sharp glare. The _Militsiya _logo on the squad car's hood was bright under the red-electric blue sirens. This guy was sneaky! But then again, Moscow had so many tiny streets that a surprise shortcut was inevitable.

_**332**_

_**331**_

When the police let up slightly and hit them again, Tooth choked out against her seatbelt. She felt their car start to move to the left beyond Jack's control.

"W-What's he doing?!" she shouted as the blood sloshed loudly in her ears. Jack turned his head back slightly before he stared forward again.

"He's trying a PIT maneuver," he said starkly and quickly put his hand on the gear shift.

_**325**_

"A WHAT?!"

But Jack didn't answer as the officers' plan worked.

The front end of the cop's car was pushing one corner of the Noble aggressively so that it would abruptly turn sideways!

And it did.

_**321**_

_**320**_

Suddenly, their entire vehicle spun around in a tight circle!

Tooth bit her lip and tensed up, gripping the edges of her seat. She felt her left-feather earring slap against her cheekbone.

The police thought that was enough and that Jack was rookie out on a joy ride, but Jack gritted his teeth and waited _–_ he was more knowledgeable about oversteers and weight transfers than most cops would think.

Jack immediately grasped the gear shift and as the rear went out of control, he let go of the brake and continued to guide the vehicle to the left.

Then when the car began to face the opposite end of the traffic, he kicked it into 1st and made the sweetest drift, using the curved path to create a centripetal force with his accelerator. The vehicle burned hot rubber on the snowy road and when Jack got view of the _right_ direction of the road again, he switched up to 3rd again and gunned it!

There was no way he was gonna let one of the oldest pursuit tactics in the book get him!

The princess' breath caught in her throat as her shoulders dropped.

_**314**_

Jack continued speeding past the cop car and the rest of the morning traffic as the intersection finally appeared. With quick eyes and smooth control, Jack turned left at the intersection, nearly putting him and Tooth into two T-bone collisions. As they moved into an open lane, flying diagonally north now on Bretskaya Ulitsa, Jack took a sharp inhale.

_**309**_

_**308**_

"That was fun," he exhaled calmly to himself – Tooth wanted to punch him the throat. He sensed her reaction and turned to see it when suddenly–

_Wii-u!_

_Wii-u!_

_Wii-u!_

–Jack eyed the sideview mirror beside her instead.

Two more _Militsiya _cars and a dark one (mostly likely undercover or federal) appeared in the tiny glass. They'd somehow used a different route to reach him at the intersection!

'_Great,'_ he grumbled to himself.

_**300**_

"J-Jack?" he heard Tooth mumble loudly. She was turning her head back multiple times.

_**299**_

"I-I think they're about to do something!"

Suddenly, the two cops and the operative all lined up behind Jack and shot forward.

_**297**_

The cop cars tried to drive neck-in-neck with Jack's Noble while the black car zoomed ahead past Tooth's window.

She was pissed to see that his windows were tinted too and watched as the Interpol agent drove just enough distance ahead.

He then hit his brake and it made sense...They were trying to box Jack in from the front!

"_Shit,_" Jack growled. "HANG ON!"

_**292**_

_**291**_

He savagely switched into _4th_ gear and sped up to outrun the cop cars on either side of their vehicle.

"YOU'RE CRAZY!"

"SO _DON'T LOOK!"_

When they tried to react, Jack moved the car into an empty lane head of the cop on his left and–

"OH MY GOD!"

–nearly swiped the fed's car ahead of them as he pulled into the next lane and tore up close to 130 km/h!

_**289**_

_**288**_

_**287**_

"Sweet holy mother of–"

"If you're scared then look down and distract yourself!" Jack snapped angrily as he clenched his jaw and eyed all his mirrors. Really, the princess could be dramatic, despite how 'comfortable' North seemed to think she was with him.

A second later, he heard her mumbling quickly under her breath to herself – she was a singing a random song to calm her anxiety.

"_...Asesina, me domina...Janguea en carros, motoras y limosinas...Llena su tanque de adrenalina...Cuando escucha reggaeton en las bocinas...A ella le gusta la gasolina...Dame más gasoli–"_

"What?!"

When she paused and looked at Jack, he was giving her the most disturbed look she'd ever seen.

She instantly went pale.

"You know Spanish!?" she asked horrified.

Jack didn't say anything to either confirm or deny it – so it was basically a YES.

Tooth squirmed awkwardly in her seat and covered her face before she realized how dumb that looked and ended up crossing her arms.

She looked away with a nervous blush.

'_So what?!'_ she grumbled in her head pretending she was talking to Jack._ 'I listen to __a lot__ of songs! That just happened to pop in my head and it calmed me down until you ruined it, you little–'_

Suddenly Jack saw the three cars switched their gears and move in, hot and ready for the pursuit. When one got in close, the officer rolled down his glass and yelled the two men inside eyed the Noble's tinted windows.

_**270**_

_**269**_

_(Russian)"PULL OVER! NOW!"_ they both shouted aggressively. Jack rolled his eyes and snapped the wheel hellishly to the left and rammed into them.

Tooth squealed as the entire vehicle shuttered from the impact. The sideview mirror on the right broke off instantly but Jack otherwise didn't give a shit as the two Militsiya were tossed sideways into the concrete barrier of the street. When they swerved and rolled out of the way, Jack hit the gas easily outdrove the other two. As he did, the Interpol agent began to shot bullets at their tires but Jack serpentined too quickly for him to get a clear shot – it was at that moment they _knew_ this was more than a simple pursuit.

_**258**_

"_WHY _did you do that?!" Tooth screamed. It was stupid when he could've easily just outdrove them. But Jack was calm and almost annoyed at her lack of praise.

"Had to send them a message."

"What? That you're stupid!?"

"No, that I'm not someone to fuck with," he growled. That shut Tooth up instantly.

_**252**_

_**251**_

_**250**_

The Interpol agents immediately tried to follow him but they lost sight quickly as Jack drove down a large street.

Quickly, they split up and used their highbeams to catch sight of the sleek, black car but by the time they'd caught up to it, they couldn't recognize it.

Down the road where Jack turned, he'd had managed to find a sportscar dealership that _sold_ fifty other Nobles in different colors!

When they got within distance of the lot, he swerved the Noble quickly and used the understeer technique to throw the black car in a sharp parallel park between two blue Nobles!

Tooth got so confused and dizzy, she had to look away from the windows.

_**235**_

_**234**_

"H-Holy–" Tooth tried to say but she covered her mouth instead to hold down her cheese omelette. She didn't really want to say anything, since it seemed like Jack knew what he was doing...but the constant turning and twisting was threatening to tear her apart. But unlike her erratic heart thumping, Jack's energy was streamlined and steady.

Before they showed up, he rolled down the gas, and guided the wind to blow away the light snowfall on the concrete...along with all the tracks! He shut off the lights and killed the engine.

Toothiana just watched him with wide, nervous eyes.

"H-How...You never told me yet how y–"

_"Shh!"_ He glared at her, "Not yet."

_**228**_

_**227**_

Sensing the oncoming danger, Jack said nothing and began to fiddle around with the seat control beneath him. When his fingers hit the correct buttons and he pressed them, both his chair and Toothiana's were thrown back until they're both staring at the ceiling of the car.

Tooth wasn't expecting it and she quickly tried to sit back up but Jack's hand shot out and pushed her back down firmly.

"_Not yet!"_ he growled and she didn't say a word – partly because his hand was still pushing down on her chest (afraid she'd try to move again), and partly because at that next second a blinding light in the distance shone over them.

_**221**_

One of the car's high-beams was lighting up the area to find the speeding supercar and the people inside it. But when Jack's quick thinking, their vehicle appeared dead against the rest of the parked ones and with no head outlines, it appeared empty.

When the highbeams quickly vanished and sped down ahead, Jack exhaled deeply through his nose while Tooth was short of breath.

"I vowed never to get on a motorcycle with you..." she grumbled as she swatted his large hand away from her breasts. "Now let's add _cars_ to that list too!"

Jack rolled his eyes as he tightened his leather glove on his left hand.

"I_ told_ you, I'm a professional," he said deeply. "Fast is what I do."

After a few more seconds of waiting and labored breaths, Jack pulled their seats back up and turned the engine on again but he left the lights off. He inhaled sharply enjoying the slight twinge of cold air in his lungs, preparing his mind for another getaway.

_**213**_

_**212**_

_**211**_

They needed to bolt...but he also needed to wait for an opening, a slick getaway not preventable by any surprise cop cars appearing.

And luckily, he got one.

When the final squad car moved across the street ahead into a new one, Jack hit the lights, moved the gear, and floored the accelerator consecutively.

_**206**_

"NO! What are you–"

_**205**_

"NOW OR NEVER, PRINCESS!"

And they gunned down the street with such a _SCREEECH_, it had all the hairs on people and animals' necks nearby shoot up like lightning rods!

_**201**_

_**200**_

The Russian law enforcement had no time to react as Jack whizzed past them to the end of the street, and joined the traffic back on the main road.

_**199**_

_**198**_

He drove like the speed demon he was, sending snow and gasoline into the air like wildfire and having all the innocent, Christmas-jolly Russian folk into cardiac arrest as he squeezed between like an asshole. At one point, he even threw the sportscar on side to drive over a parked scooter near the sidewalk as he tried to get the red light – Tooth did not enjoy it.

But while Jack drove with roving eyes, looking for the intersections that led to Leningradsky Avenue and the highway, several lights caught up with him from behind.

When he looked, he cursed.

Some new cops were tailing him from behind and he soon realised...that they'd managed to shutdown the entire block ahead.

_**193**_

_**192**_

"Jack, there's no way out!" Tooth cried as she stared too. No _way_ could they make it out – it was gonna be a tight drive to race ahead...

_**189 **_

And that's when something caught Jack's eye on the left.

_**188**_

Three identical black cars suddenly appeared and lined up with Jack!

A positive rush couldn't stop itself from flaring inside him as he stared at the two on his right and the one of his left. An audio message on the onboard touchscreen played.

**"_Chzzc_****___–_****ELFs have been dispatched from Overpass 5, Comet Svet (Comet's Light). Assisting on boss' command._–__Chc!_"**

Then it cut out – but that was more than enough music to Jack and Tooth's ears.

_**184**_

_**183**_

Jack eyed the Noble on his left– he couldn't see what the others were doing through their own tinted windows but he had a ...'gut' feeling.

And like all his senses, he trusted it.

With a quick press to the clutch, Jack smoothly downshifted into _1__st_ and Tooth watched breathlessly as the other three preformed the same almost simultaneously. And when Jack swerved the car slightly before throwing it into a tight drift, the others did the same. They spun in four identical circles and immediately all lined up, facing away from the blocked off road and towards the oncoming police.

_**178**_

_**177**_

The cop cars horns were loud and their sirens wailed with expectancy.

Jack listened as the other three ELFs revved their engines anxiously and he gripped the wheel tightly. Then with one more confirmation look, he turned his head to the princess.

_**172**_

She smirked up at him.

_"Lose 'em!"_ she pumped and he hit the clutch and panned the gear shift all the way to _4._

As the wheels spun underneath for a moment, he heard the Elves do the same. Then, they all let go at the same time and tore ahead!

_**165**_

The sheer tension was rising with each second all eight cars got closer to each other. Jack and the other Elves hit 97 km/h in 3 seconds and were steadily increasing. They would surely crash and die if the others cops didn't blink and veer off-course first...but Jack knew something was about to happen – agents weren't deployed on rescue missions unless they had all the possibilities figured out.

The ELFs didn't disappoint.

_**157**_

_**156**_

North's agents were quick and at the last possible open window, one of them outsped Jack (who was taking the lead) and he expertly twisted his car ahead of the seven and let loose a smokescreen!

It blurred all the police momentarily and gave Jack and the other Nobles the chance to swerve around them and scatter like the wind.

They all split up when they reached the previous intersection and when the cops recovered, each black supercar was being chased individually, looking for Jack.

_**151**_

_**150**_

_**149**_

Jack ended up getting on the Leningradskoye highway. As he drove recklessly through the early morning lanes, his muscles tensed at his shoulders and he made quick to relax him. If he could _just_ outrun the cops on long enough on this long road, then hopefully the coordinates would finally appear.

Tooth seemed to be thinking on the same line of thought as him.

_**143**_

_**142**_

"Argh, when is this timer gonna hit zer–_OH!"_ Tooth suddenly screamed when something loud and heavy hit them from her side. Her heart nearly jumped into her throat as she whacked into Jack's arm.

The tractor unit of truck (without the cargo) veered right into them and tried to make them pull over.

_**138**_

"WHAT'S HE DOING?!" she cried angrily and tried to move away from the window.

"HE'S A DECOY!" Jack cried as his eyes widened with realization. Reacting quickly, Jack downshifted and let the car slow down just enough behind the truck so that he could go around it. When it was on his side, he shot Tooth an almost murderous glare.

"Can you drive stick?!" he harped over the loud V8 engines. Tooth snapped her head up at him wildly.

_**133**_

"WHAT?!"

"I NEED TO STOP HIM! SO CAN YOU?!"

As he began to roll down his window and the cold, Russian wind flew her hair around her face, Tooth's mind went on a brief standstill.

_**129**_

_**128**_

* * *

_Two years ago._

* * *

"_No no no! Shouldn't y –" _

"_Tooth, he said to let go of the–"_

"_Wait, you have to–"_

"_AHHH!"_

_All nine girls screamed as Toothiana made their jeep jerk violently forward on the dirt road. When it stopped again, Tat, Tulia and Tiati went into hysterical laughter._

"_Girls, shut up!" Tooth laughed as she gripped the gear shift again and tried to move it back into 1 again. "I-I'm doing just fin–Why isn't this thing MOVING?!"_

"_You're gonna kill us, Tooth!" Tia cried from behind as she held Tiati in her lap._

"_I think you're supposed to LET GO of the gas!"_

"_But I'm not even pressing it, Tina!"_

"_Well then–"_

_They all screamed again when Tooth panicked as the gear shift moved into 2. Her foot went for the brake, thinking it'd fly forward when really, she hit the gas pedal._

_They watched in horror as Tooth let go the clutch and grabbed the steering wheel tightly with both hands, trying to steer it down the road._

"_See?! I-I can do this!"_

_But suddenly the slope from the dirt road came up and the jeep went down it quickly. It was a slow and gradual incline but with Tooth's lack of driving, all the handmaidens thought they were heading to their deaths._

"_TOOTH! I SWEAR T__–_!"

"_WE'RE GONNA DIE!"_

"_SHUT UP!"_

"_Waaah, Toooothie!"_

_All the locals watched and jumped out of the way as the jeep speedily went down the hill. At one point, Tooth had to dodge a goat crossing and a fruit cart setup by one of the islanders._

_When the road was approaching a turn at the end of the incline, Tooth put her foot on the clutch impulsively and managed to downshift back to 1. She started to mumble to herself and BT eyed her from the passenger seat like a mad woman._

"_What?!"_

"_M-Minister Ty said 1 is the lowest level s-so I should be able to–"_

_And she hit the brake without even finishing._

_They all screamed again when the jeep stopped abruptly and Tiana flew forward. Tooth quickly shut the engine off with shaky fingers and leaned over the wheel, shellshocked._

_When she noticed movement coming from the right, she turned her head over Tat's. One of the women in the house next to them came out to see what all the noise was about._

_She immediately laughed when she realised it was just their beloved princess and her handmaidens out for an afternoon drive._

_Tooth gave her a sheepish grin while all her sisters groaned loudly in the back._

"_S-Sawasdee kah, Khun-Pā! (Hello auntie!)" she greeted respectively with a high voice and chattering teeth._

* * *

_**122**_

_**123**_

She gulped and wound her scarf tighter around her dry throat.

"Uh...yeah sorta?" Tooth called back. "But what are you planning t–"

Jack suddenly unbuckled himself and began to lift his hands off the wheel.

_**118**_

"JACK, ARE YOU CRAZY?!" she shrieked and took hold of it from the passenger seat.

He was sure her nerves were shot and as the violent, December wind through his hair up.

"Just keep driving forward!" he yelled. "It's a one-way, but keep your eyes on me so you know when to pick me up!"

Jack then lifted his boot off the gas and Tooth quickly slipped into the driver's seat. She held down the accelerator again.

"_Don't touch the clutch,"_ she kept mumbling to herself. _"Don't_ touch the clutch!"

_**113**_

_**112**_

Jack then jumped through the window and landed on the truck's hitch. The wind almost knocked him over but he quickly twisted the current in his pale fingers and directed it around him. When his trenchcoat immediately billowed out behind him, he sighed angrily at the drag it caused.

Tooth shot her hand out of the car. "Give me your coat!" she cried and he quickly obliged. He tossed it to her with the wind.

Without the pull of the heavy fabric weighing him down, Jack rushed forward but the federal agent driving the truck saw him through the sideview mirror and opened his door. He expertly leaned out behind him to fire shots at the brunette but Jack was already parkouring up the back of the truck's cab.

Tooth watched with wide eyes, steadily easing her boot on the gas and trying to keep up with the truck – so far, there were no cars ahead on the highway yet to swerve around.

_**104**_

"JACK!" she screamed and he threw a hand out at her to forget about him.

As he reached the roof of the truck, he crouched over the wind and leaned to the left, eyeing the spy over the edge. Below, the spy was wondering where he'd gone and Jack grit his teeth. With a controlled breath he shut his eyes.

_**102**_

_**101**_

_**100**_

It was now or never.

_**99**_

Jack took hold of the icy bar running along the roof and with a powerful lift, he flipped over and twisted himself to face the truck. As he fell in a curve, Jack pressed his boots together and drove them hard into the open door. He hit the federal agent perfectly in the face.

Once he got inside, the two got into a quick brawl.

_**93**_

_**92**_

The federal agent threw a right hook but Jack caught it and delivered a heavy elbow strike to the man's torso. The federal agent coughed out and tried to knock it down but before he could follow with a left uppercut, Jack threw a straight punch that caused the older man to fly into the passenger seat. His absence from the wheel and the gas however caused the truck to slow and veer off-course!

_**87**_

Jack quickly slipped properly into the seat and hit the gas as he leveled out the truck into the lane again to avoid the cars on the left and Tooth driving on the right. As he did though, the agent came back with a blow to Jack's head. He used the back-end of his gun and Jack was left keeling away in pain.

He instinctively caught the door handle but it opened on its own and the brunette suddenly found himself clinging to it _and the wheel_ as he leaned precariously over the outside! The highway wind and hoarfrost in the air bit at his face and forearms as the fed tried to push him further.

_**80**_

Jack tried to claw the hands away but they wouldn't budge.

"JACK FROST! YOU ARE UNDER ARREST!" the Interpol agent barked as he clambered over.

_**77**_

_**76**_

When he was within arm's reach, he grabbed Jack around the throat and proceeded to squeeze tightly. "Do NOT resist arrest or I will kill you on site as otherwise instructed!"

Jack choked out a cough and shut his eyes. He fell limp intentionally, trying to level his heart rate or else the panic would make him lose oxygen quicker!

As he did, his mind began racing.

_**69**_

_**68**_

He needed something throw this man off...but the knife in his belt was too far and he couldn't twist down to reach for the one in his–

Jack's maple-colored eyes snapped open.

_**64**_

As the man above grunted angrily, trying to squeeze Jack's life from this throat, Jack gritted his teeth. He began to move his left arm inwards while the truck's door swung violently in the wind.

_**61**_

_**60**_

_**59**_

When he got hold of the short rod, Jack exhaled slowly. The brunette moved it in his grasp until he was holding it perfectly in the centre.

He then pressed it briefly and did a wrist roll before thrusting it behind him. As he did, the rod expanded into its full-length Bo staff. It got the agent right the throat and he was pushed back instantly!

_**56**_

_**55**_

The man coughed and tried to move away but Jack's hold on the staff pinned him straight against the passenger's window. He dropped his gun as he tried to pry the stick away. The man gazed up, fearful of the sudden appearance of the black weapon and at the wanted criminal who was holding it. Jack's face held nothing but malice and cold focus.

Jack pulled himself silently back into the truck and raised the staff higher until the agent's chin was tilted upwards to the ceiling.

"_Nice try,"_ Jack seethed before he quickly moved the titanium pole from the guy's throat and shattered the window behind him. Then collapsing the Bo staff, Jack rushed forward and tossed him out of the truck by the collar of his shirt.

_**49**_

Tooth screamed when a dark figure flew out of the truck and looked back. As she did, her boot left the gas pedal and her seat rolled back.

"SHIT!" she squealed and tried to move it forward. She didn't know that Jack had tried to move the seat forward for her (since his legs were longer than hers) – but he hadn't locked the chair in!

_**45**_

_**44**_

"I swear to _god,_ Jack!" she whined as she tried to move the seat forward. It wouldn't budge and a second later, Jack flew into through the window and clambered in behind her. His hair was viciously windswept and snowflakes covered it, his shirt, and his eyelashes. When she eyed the rearview mirror to glare at him, she saw something burning in the background.

_**40**_

Tooth spun.

Jack had set the truck on fire and it was rolling to a stop as they drove ahead and a second later...it exploded!

The shockwave flung her forward against the wheel. When her foot got the gas pedal, she sat stiff, afraid to move again as she perched her butt on the edge of the seat.

_**38**_

_**37**_

"What're you doing?!" Jack yelled behind her. "MOVE!"

"I-I..." she tried to start but her nerves locked her mouth shut as she tried to avoid hitting the few cars appearing ahead of them. She looked down and gasped.

"HOLY CRAP. We're going 175!"

"Then _move _if you're scared!"

"I-I can't, Jack! I don't want to–AHH!" she screamed and swerved when she nearly rammed a white Honda from behind.

"You have _got_ to be freaking kidding me!" he cried angrily and ran a hand through his hair. He quickly moved himself behind her and put both his legs on either side of her. When he filled in the driver's seat, he leaned over her head and shut the window.

_**32**_

_**31**_

Immediately, all the cold air that seemed to suck the breath from their lungs stopped.

_**30**_

"Fine, then let go! _I'll drive!_" he said grouchily and grasped the gear shift. "But when we get to a pause, you _need _to move!"

And Jack eased the gas and pressed the clutch. Then when he switched into _3__rd_, he floored the accelerator.

_**28**_

"OH NO!" Tooth cried as the speed threw her back firmly against his chest. Her already-blotched cheeks from the cold wind grew hot again and she shut her eyes.

'_Really, this is ridiculous!'_ Jack thought as her hair brushed around his jaw. He was just damn lucky he'd been trained for so many kinds of scenarios – this one included...but for evacuees or one-passenger cars, not because a woman wanted to!

_**24**_

As Jack hellishly drove with Tooth under him, he eyed the highway with gritted teeth. On his left, one of Moscow's many rivers had suddenly appeared and a small overpass tunnel was coming into view ahead.

_**20**_

Unfortunately, so was a helicopter that appeared over it!

Jack growled. It suddenly appeared over the tunnel to the bridge, no doubt to assist the Russian police in tagging him!

_**18**_

_**17**_

"Princess, I know you're scared, but you _need_ to move NOW! I'm about to do something!"

When Tooth opened her eyes, she saw what Jack had seen. The helicopter light was on the burning truck way behind them now, but she knew any second now it would fall on them before they hit the short tunnel–

_**16**_

"TOOTHIANA!"

"Okay! _Okay, sorry!"_ she choked and she watched him lift his right arm away for her to move across.

_**14**_

_**13**_

When she was settled in, she locked her seatbelt.

_**10**_

_**9**_

After he fixed his chair, Jack did the same as he mentally prepared for the tunnel coming ahead. A second later, Leningradsky's two dark tunnels came up in the distance. Its two tunnels, one returning and the other going in, ran under a manmade hill. It was lit up with orange overlights in each. Tooth closed her mouth as she at stared the magnificent structure come into view.

_**5**_

_**4**_

But the tunnel also had a sharp left curve and would lead to a bridge over the expansive river.

So Jack hit the clutch and prepared to drive the Noble faster toward the overpass.

_**3**_

_**2**_

_**1...**_

_**Boop! Boop!**_

Jack looked down – the GPS countdown had finished and lit up.

"L-LOOK!" Tooth cried and leaned forward slightly.

**55.912850, 37.465096 SW – Mosokovskaya**

The GPS countdown had ended and showed the real coordinates to North's runway! The coordinates Jack realized were lined up perfectly with where they were because at the end of the bridge, they needed to turn into large district that would eventually vanish into a forest.

Jack only had a two-second glance to memorize the numbers before he eyed the road again.

"Got it," he said then he hit the gear shift into 3rd as they crossed the intersection.

He was about to take the tunnel on the right when–

"Argh!"

Jack squeezed his eyes shut briefly – the helicopter had shined its light directly in his face (finally finding them)...and it cost him the entrance tunnel.

He accidentally swerved to the right with his impaired vision – and drove into the oncoming one!

"JACK! NO!" Tooth cried, her voice high and shrill, and he recovered instantly. He quickly rubbed one of his eyes and blinked out the white spots.

He gritted his teeth.

Jack hit the clutch and downshifted to 2nd – he didn't want to lose time and just had to avoid a hit. So silent and focused like a predator, he twisted the black car against the cars coming at them. The Noble was deep and thunderous, its engines echoing off the concrete walls as they tore through the end of the tunnel toward the bridge.

Many cars coming at them swerved out of his way and gave him room, while a few hit their brakes – everyone was honking like mad and Tooth's shouts were _not_ helping.

"TOOTHIANA, WILL YOU PL–!"

"OH MY GOD! OH MY _GOD!_ NO, JACK! We-Wai–Watch out for the–"

She screamed.

He didn't give a damn and ignored her after when a short, stocky car froze up in front of them and he swerved around it expertly...into another halted car before speeding away again.

As they continued to go 125km/h in the wrong direction, the curve moving the tunnel upwards finally appeared and luckily, the traffic going down it started to grow less and less. Jack found it easier to drive more proficiently and when he had to follow the sharp turn, he downshifted and swung the car into a daredevil drift. His lungs were on fire and his grip was tight but Jack's mind was buzzing...and he managed to get up all the way through.

The second the curve ended and the angle of the car was balanced, Jack hit the clutch again and sped around the last of the vehicles screeching to a halt as they exited the tunnel and met the bridge.

Jack eyed the bridge with nostalgia – it was a bascule bridge that opened up down the middle for boat traffic on the river.

But–

"J-Jack?" Tooth called as her eyes grew exceptionally wide. "_Jack?!_"

"I see it, I see it!" he said and gripped the wheel.

The Russian Interpol and several local police had managed to get there _before them_ and were beginning to block off access to the bridge!

"Son of a–" but Tooth stopped when she realised Jack had just passed the last intersection and kept driving forward. She also spotted another black Noble speeding away to confuse the police.

Still, she whirled on Jack's crackpot decision.

"Oh no..._NO!"_

But he wasn't stopping – and she soon knew why.

The police were still trying to get the bridge to pull all the way up! It was going up, but there was still enough of a jumping distance between the two leaves.

He glanced at the speedometer and grasped the gear shift in anticipation.

"ARE YOU NUTS?!"

"Only if I don't reach 137km in 5 seconds and we don't make that jump!" He argued and he moved away as he watched the Police and Interpol react to their arrival. Several raised their guns and shot at the front of the vehicle. They didn't have time to throw down a spike strip.

"GET DOWN!" Jack cried and he and Tooth bent forward under the dashboard as the bullets shot through the glass and whizzed past them.

Jack suddenly saw a flash.

**_"Foot pursuit has changed to...repeat! Pursuit in progress!...Repeat!"_**

Tooth screamed and covered her ears. Jack quickly pulled up and drove with such intensity everything around him seemed to be at a standstill...but he did hear Toothiana's voice, just as he drove the car within its final metres of the Russian law enforcement.

"I-I don't think we'll make it!" Tooth whimpered loudly as the sirens came ear-piercingly close.

Jack's fingers in his leather glove twitched.

**_–Rio Janeiro: Jack drifted the car around one corner with one hand. His other was holding a gun out the window and he had to time the shot right–_**

As he caught hold of the gearshift and gripped it with ecstasy, he shot her an almost feral look from under his brown bangs – untamed and hot-blooded for the thrill that was chasing them both.

"Whatever you thought about going fast, is nothing compared to what I'm about to do," Jack said, his voice deep and steady but his vigour easily noticeable. "You ready?"

The wind rushing through the bullet holes in the windshield blew all her dark hair, blonde hairlights, and feather earrings behind her, still mentally preparing for the ride.

Jack immediately thought back to North.

Remembering all the Elves' immediate preparedness, ready for him and Thia, elated his senses and fired him up to the core – it gave him a feeling he seemed to lack, or more accurate, a feeling he had tried to avoid for so long. _Faith. Optimism. _But after North's confessions and Toothiana's smile, he was unafraid of treading.

'_I'm like him,'_ he finally admitted to himself, thinking of the Russian.

Project GUARDIAN was for good agents, for agents like he used to be. And while he didn't have all the knots tied up or cut away, that was enough for the moment because it gave Jack's moral compass more than enough reason to slowly improve. It gave him the drive he was missing for a year – a cause to fight for, a purpose larger than himself and Pitch.

**_–Los Angeles: Jack drove up to the parking lot roof and before it went over the edge, he rolled out of the moving car and slipped into the tiny, open duct nearby–_**

As his mind slowed down the hysteria around him to steady his heartbeat, he watched how the princess' hair moved around her and her eyes squeezed shut.

"I-I'll try to be," he heard her mumble, trying to stay loyal to her decision to have faith in him and for Jack, that was enough.

He felt the warm puff of air leave his lips and when his lungs filled with ice breath, he nodded slowly. Jack then turned back to the police and squinted through the cracked windshield.

"You just have to believe in me," he answered deeply.

And when the cop cars and armoured vans were within a metre away, he hit the clutch and moved up into _4__th__._

**_–Seoul: "Freeze!" Jack delivered a powerful punch combo to the corrupt cop and slammed his head against the windshield. He then stole his squad car and went after the real criminal van–_**

Then, he hit it!

Tooth said nothing, _did_ nothing, as her entire body went into paralysis from the sheer power of the Noble's engine. The entire body of the car vibrated heavily as Jack manoeuvred the car through the tight space between two cops!

He bent slightly when few of their bullets came through the side windows but missed him. It cost Jack a bit of speed as he tried to recover and the Russian Interpol saw it as the perfect opportunity to setup a missile – if this guy was gonna make the jump, they had to try to take him out at the landing! The Russian government would pay for the expenses later.

The brunette meanwhile began counting the seconds as the incline of the bridge began to start.

**_"...Gunner division! Move into sector 4! That bomb..."_**

'_1'_

Jack blinked several times.

**"..._get the hostages!..._"**

'_2'_

He gripped the wheel.

_**"...(Italian) W-Who are you!?"**_

'_3'_

His teeth gritted together.

**_"Move the ambassador out NOW!"_**

'_4'_

Then, he looked down.

'_5'_

_****__Jack drove the window and floored it._

Jack smirked.

He hadn't reached 135 km/h in five seconds...he'd reached 175!

So quickly, he moved the gear into _5th_, the Nobles highest, and he hit it!

As they drove up the ever-inclining ramp towards the edge, Jack thought of nothing but his trust in his skill and the full control he had over his body. He couldn't see through the freaking window, but he just knew...the bridge was there and they would reach the other side.

After a moment's anticipation, the black supercar flew over the last of the ramp, the mid-air suspension exhilarated them both.

Tooth opened her eyes and lifted her head impulsively. She eyed the dark river beneath them with a mouth wide open and large, round eyes. Her heart was like a time bomb waiting to go off and cold sweat began to start under her scarf and freeze in the winter air. But when she looked at Jack, and saw how he looked, suspended in time, she felt a sudden rush.

He was focused on something invisible and calling out to him – and without even thinking, she knew automatically what he needed!

The princess lifted her fingers to the window buttons on her side and pressed both down firmly.

When the powerful wind immediately blew through the car and tossed their hair up like monsters, Jack let go of the wheel to control the frigid wind torrents around them. His ungloved fingers traced the direction of the current and with a firmly set jaw, he grabbed the North wind with his gene.

Tooth's stomach made a pleasant flip as the wind counterworked against the gravity and literally floated onto the other bridge! More and more, Jack seemed to amaze her...

When they made it all the way, the wind helped to cushion their landing marvellously.

As soon as the ties touched the concrete again, Jack recovered control of the car and maddeningly moved down the steep ramp.

Tooth couldn't help it – as the wind blew painful ice into her face, she let out a whoop.

"WOoo!" she cheered, clapped like a little kid. "Jack, you–GAH!"

Jack hit the brakes abruptly. He then stood up and threw a reverse elbow strike and violent punch at the windshield.

Leaning forward over the steering wheel slightly, he knocked out the hole-filled glass until it all gave away and they could both see perfectly through the wind.

That's when a deafening _whooshing_ sound followed by a catastrophic _BOOM_ exploded behind them and threw the car slightly off the ramp. The Russian police shot a missile at the bridge ramp underneath them!

Tooth gasped as she got knocked forward and Jack's ears buzzed from the shockwave but it was failed attempt by the police...they managed to make it through the fire and explosion.

The law enforcement watched angrily when the bridge didn't collapse or hit their intended targets. With the leaf up, the Russian Interpol couldn't even get a view of where Jack and his Noble were going from the other side, hell they couldn't even identify who was with him in the passenger seat!

But that gave Jack and Tooth the window of opportunity to speed off at the next exit and when they did, they vanished into the Khimki district as North's new coordinates had instructed.

They never saw them again.

...

_(Russian) "Move in. MOVE IN, DAMMIT!" _a cop bellowed into his walkie-talkie.

The helicopter rushed in immediately and flew over the river. It tried to shine light against the flaming parts of the bridge and the tire tracks left on the concrete so the police could catch up when the bridge came down again...but out of nowhere–

_BOOM!_

Another mysterious missile shot it down – all the men screamed and ran for cover behind their squad cars.

As the huge explosion lit up the Moscow sky like a firework on Christmas, two black Nobles parked very far away in a secluded park were immediately turned on. One ELF was quickly moving his tripod case, labelled 'MISTLETOE', into his trunk, while his partner called North on his Bluetooth to inform him that they helped Jack.

"_Da?"_

"_The kiss was a success,"_ he said promptly and North smirked on his end.

"_Well done,_" he said and the two men signed off.

As North walked around his office, cracking his knuckles and playing with the gold rings on his large fingers, he quickly called ahead to another ELF agent.

"_Yes sir?"_ the younger man responded. A loud whooshing sound like an open field behind him was heard in the mic. North chuckled.

"_Merry Christmas."_

"_Right away!"_ And the ELF cut out the message and got straight to work.

...

Jack parked the car in a construction parking lot owned by men (who looked suspiciously like North's agents) before him and Tooth dashed out. The men paid no attention to them as they went about their "Christmas rush" duties and were busy with their large communication systems.

Then when one ELF came out and pointed into a wooded forest behind the site, Jack gripped Toothiana's hand and the two sprinted through the thick bushel. They ran in total darkness for several minutes with nothing but the frigid air pinching their lungs and the pumping adrenaline still running their skin.

Then as quickly as Jack and Tooth were adjusting to the darkness, a bright, white light blinded them as the forest opened up to a small clearing.

They both squinted through the light.

There was red-uniformed ELF waving at them from a smooth, dirt runway. He had all their bags at his feet, but what was more magnificent was the beautiful, white jet parked above the ELF.

It was a small, private-class plane that glistened against the falling snow.

On the side Jack and Tooth saw it was labelled _Sleigh Runner 06 _– one of many already up in the air.

Tooth smiled gratefully before Jack escorted her across the hard grass and earth and not a second later, all three moved into the jet.

By the time it was 4am and the bridge was brought down again, the international police lost their chance to retrace Jack Frost's steps.

He was gone again, like the wind, and they had no clue he was with Princess Toothiana Hypunjam already on his way to a whole new country, where he had more people to piss off.

...

"Bloody _hell."_

A bloodcurdling scream was heard as Pitch Black took hold of his Nightmares' head in both hands and a second later, he twisted his neck.

Still on the brink of rage, Pitch pulled out a Taurus rifle and shot him twice through both yellow goggles. When he moved away, fury apparent under his grey skin and long fingers twitching on his gun, his shadows around the room stretched without his conviction.

They always did that when he was angry beyond his own control but unlike the rest of mankind that feared the shadows he stalked in, they appeared like long hands of comfort, extending out to comfort him and the room he locked himself away in.

When one of the shadows of the chair elongated against the wall next to him, Pitch turned slightly and eyed it with deep, yellow eyes as his 6"8 shadow did the same.

"Oh my dear friends...my pets," he mumbled darkly. He reached out and stroked the concrete wall where the shadow kept growing against the light. "See what happens when you lose a tooth? That..._empty_ feeling? I can lick the wound, that empty gum, until the new one appears but unless I hold the fallen one in my hand, in my _grip_...where's the joy? The _prize?_ My pillow is STILL empty. And what kind of man would I be to disappoint the tooth fairy, hm?"

He willed the shadow of the chair to flutter down and he watched as it slinked down the wall and back to the chair. In the light, it shied away under the legs and into the shadow of the dead hitman he'd just killed. Seeing his only hitman return when teh others were ambushed, split the calm facade in his face once more.

Pitch turned feral and stalked forward, grabbing the corpse's bloodied mask as he talked down to it.

"Now, not only do I have these damned elves to deal with, but also this little_ shit_ Jack Frost!" he snarled. "And you know me, I _hate_ surprise appearances!"

He then shoved the body away.

When the chair fell with the corpse and the deafening _snap_ of the chair on the concrete echoed around the room, the other hitmen near the back, his Elite squad of Arch-level Nightmares, said nothing. They stood stoic and unfazed by their founder's murderous behaviour – they were responsible for acts just as cruel.

Pitch quickly tossed his gun onto the floor, into the pool of blood around the dead Nightmare and pulled out a black device from his waistbelt. He grasped it tightly in his greyish, bony fingers before he pulled a secret sequence into his invention.

Almost immediately, all his elite men's vests beeped yellow and a gridlock synched their assigned coordinates together.

"We are _rushing _Operation Nightmare," Pitch spat sending all the hot blood in the room into a chill. "Send your legions by the tens and track the Elves with the case. I. Want. The. **Tooth.** _Found!"_

And when they moved silently away like terrible horses, leaping for exit windows high up around the room, Pitch gritted his teeth and balled his fists.

When they vanished, a scientist from Pitch's science department suddenly called him. Pitch's eyes widened briefly before he gracefully turned on his PA system.

"_Well!?"_

As he asked, Tulia's cries of resist were heard in the distance.

"_No, no, no stop! PLEASE!"_

She sobbed in agony and a loud _crash_ that sounded like a metal table was heard.

"I-I want to go_ home!"_ she shrieked._ "I WANT TO GO HOME!"_

And the younger girl kept crying before it was muffled out by a door being slammed.

"W-We attempted cardamom fr-from Sri Lanka," he spoke gently. "But...w-well sir, neither are s-still responsive."

And it was all Pitch could do to control his fury and not slam his hand savagely against the table – even though he desperately wanted to watch the dark wood crack down the middle and split in two.

"If not myrcene, then _try again,"_ he says after a deep exhale.

"The girls still have_ much_ time on their side...but I cannot say the same for their princess."

And the scientist meekly agreed and cut out, scurrying back to his immoral work.

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "Suit Up" – Blue Stahli **This is one of my faves! Tis be Jack's gunner track. Oh and the song Tooth was humming was "La Gasolina" by Daddy Yankee - didn't realise until I wrote it in how ironic some of the lyrics are lmao!  
(And big thanx to kshep.n7 and Lovina for helping me with my Thai and Spanish!)**


	19. Si Accende Il Mio Mondo

**G****uys, thank you for always being kind and patient during the past extensively long chapters! Get comfy, and to everyone on their long weekend, I hope u're having a good one. :)**

* * *

**"Just close your eyes. The sun is going down. You'll be all right. No one can hurt you now."  
**

* * *

_Moscow 3:38 am...or rather, Rome, Ciampino__ Airport_**,**_ 12:38 am_

When the jet reached over Italy, the ELF decided to stop for a quick gas fill.

He told Jack and the princess that it would take about an hour and a half to fill and takeoff again so told them that they might as well get off and change into their party clothes already.

With an assured security check to North (because of Jack's constant paranoia), the two were ushered to a private section of the Italian airport where they could get ready. Both took quick showers and after getting into their formal wear, they had to return to the airplane.

Tooth arrived back at the plane with the ELF before Jack and quickly let herself in the plane's small bathroom. She didn't want to take all the expensive makeup and jewellery into the airport.

Jack meanwhile, stayed behind and decided against his own choice to use the hair dye North had given him and returned to his full chocolate-auburn brown hair – since the Russian Interpol had a newer look of him with his white streaks, he had to blend in again.

When Tooth finally emerged from the bathroom, she stopped short of breath at the sight of him.

Jack's black tuxedo made him incredibly sexy as he sat in the leather chair looking out the window at the ELF on the ground, refuelling the plane's tiny engine. He wasn't in his dark trousers or combat boots, but handsome shoes provided by North and the MK company. His (now) light-brown hair was still messy and swirling and she watched as he lifted his hands to fix one of his cuffs prematurely – probably a spy-cleanliness trait...or nerves.

When Jack the movement of teal and gold in his the corner of his eye, he turned.

Instantly, Jack's gaze fell back on her and his breath hitched just the slightest in his throat.

Toothiana wore the same dress she'd gotten him, but since Phil brought it to the cleaners and it was free of wrinkles and dirt, the satin looked brand new. Someone also took the time to cut an elegant slit up one side and gave him full view of her slender leg. Tooth fiddled with her elegantly pink, see-through shawl before she decided not to wrap it around her and tossed it into a chair.

As she moved further into the passenger cabin, Jack saw the glint of the Michael Kors gold jewelry from the tiny belt around her waist, the choker, her earrings, and her many bangles. She stumbled on the mat in her heels and when she tripped slightly, his eyebrows flew up and he shot out a hand up to catch her arm.

"Careful," Jack said and she nodded with a blush.

Tooth hoped her makeup – cat eyes, pink eyeshadow, and delicate lipstick – would be enough to compliment her face as he stared at her closely now. When she realised he wasn't wearing his leather glove on his left hand, she blinked and looked down.

It took her a moment to realise he had a weird scar in the middle of his palm. It had healed a long time ago, but it left a faint scarring of white lines spidery out and together – almost like a snowflake.

Jack caught her gaze instantly and let go as she steadied herself. As she did, her gold anklets jingled lightly and she rubbed an arm.

"You...look really nice, Jack" she complimented with a warm smile and he blinked.

"You too," he mumbled as he stood up leisurely and towered over her.

Tooth smiled fondly and took a step back from their immediate proximity – his new look was making it hard to collect oxygen and she tucked a hair behind her ear. As she did, he stared at the way her dark hair piled atop her head in a high bun. She had several jewelled pins in it, like the first time they'd met, and Bao's feather hair tie was wrapped around the centre, the yellow feather accenting the place that her blonde streak used to.

Something suddenly took hold of him.

"Toothiana?" he said abruptly and she looked back up.

"What's wrong?" And she watched as he openly frowned and looked away.

"Sorry about earlier...you know when I kept yelling at you in the car. I'm usually alone when I drive like that and the stress, you know? "

Tooth reached out and touched his arm.

"Oh, Jack... it's okay, I know. Besides I wasn't helping you, with me being all..."

_"Hysterical?"_

And she laughed and nodded, no longer wanting to fight him – not that Jack wanted to start one: he was being genuinely apologetic for getting her all scared again and Tooth, always forgiving, saw that.

"Yeah, well you know me by now," she said. "I just...reacted."

Jack shoved his hands into his black pants and raised an eyebrow. As he did, Tooth saw a slim belt nearly invisible against his waist that held his collapsible Bo staff and a rifle behind him.

She blinked and gulped.

"Did North give you that?" she asked, pointing at the weapon belt. He looked down at it briefly and nodded.

"Yeah, it was with my things when the ELF gave me my clothes...extra tech and weaponry just in case."

"That makes me feel better."

"Because I'm armed again?"

"Well there's that and because I'm uh..." she stuttered and bit her lip. "H-He gave me something too."

Jack's face grew perplexed and raised his eyebrows.

"What?"

Tooth immediately pushed the slit in her dress apart, and around her upper thigh, he saw a gun holster with a tiny rifle perched in the leather hold.

Jack gawked.

"_Why_ did he give that to you?" he demanded sternly.

The princess dropped the skirt and moved around him back to the tiny washroom and when she came back, she was holding a large, empty Ziploc bag with another gun holster (for her other leg) and a note inside.

Tooth quickly pulled out the note and read it aloud to Jack.

"I remembered your skill in the alley when you saved my men. You have good hold on both hands and your right. Please ask Jack to teach you, and Merry Christmas...North." She then paused and blinked up at him sheepishly. "A-and hey, did you know today is December 24th? I didn't even know it become Christmas Eve three hours ago."

Or technically, it was still midnight in Italy – Moscow was three hours ahead when they left and they'd just landed so it was still after midnight.

But Jack didn't share the same sentiment and stalked up to her. He frowned worriedly.

"You don't need to carry a gun, princess," he said deeply and she grew flustered under his hawk stare.

"Wh-No, Jack! Come on, you gotta teach me how to shoot so I won't be afraid of guns anymore."

And he scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"That's not a reason to hold one," he argued and pointed at the other one still in the bag. "Guns are only used with intention not for trivial therapy."

"But it's also for self-defence! Remember?" she countered with a valid point. "If I hadn't picked one up in the first place, two Nightmares would have already gotten me and killed off one of North's ELFs!"

"But I–"

"Jack," she cut him off and his tongue – though usually quick to catch her banter – stopped short. Her big, pleading eyes, accented by pink eyeshadow and long lashes seemed to pin him down.

She watched when after about five seconds, the brunette sighed and ran a hand tiredly through his (now lighter) hair.

"Okay," he complied. "Fine, I'll teach you. But where–"

"May I offer a suggestion?"

Jack lifted his head at the new voice and Tooth turned. They both found their pilot, one of North's ELF agents, smiling at them from the exit door. He'd just come to tell them something when he heard their conversation.

Jack lifted his eyebrows, feeling more relaxed around people – particularly strangers – than he'd felt in a long time.

"Shoot," he said as he shrugged his shoulders.

"I have a target block that her highness can use in the back near the small kitchen area over there," he said and pointed behind Tooth. When she followed his gaze and saw a cube of soft concrete, she'd never noticed before, she smiled.

"That could work!" she praised and the ELF nodded encouragingly, much to Jack's chagrin.

Tooth then looked back to him and bowed slightly, feeling more in her natural state with her princess demeanour on. "Thank you, sir," she said kindly and the ELF smiled back up at her.

"You're very welcome, princess," he replied. "And I also wanted to let you both know that the fuel-up might not take another hour or so."

Jack raised an eyebrow.

"Why?"

"Eh, there's some calibrations I want to check out and a buddy of mine in the Florentine ELF division just showed up to say hi," he said with a tiny grin. "So you two can walk around for a bit and come back. The tank should be filled by then."

And Tooth smiled back and Jack just nodded.

"Sounds fine with me," Jack said. Now that he knew it was Christmas, the part of him that was always ready to get-up-and-go stilled slightly. It was natural for everyone when the holidays rolled in.

"I-I've never been to Italy before," Tooth mumbled to herself as she put the bag with the gun in it in a chair and the ELF pointed out the window.

"Just walk out east from the airport and there's this nice little tourist district you can rest at," he instructed. "When I'm ready, I'll let you know through the complink, Jack."

He then waved and turned, leaving the two alone again in the warm jet as he shut the door and kept out the gentle snowfall.

Tooth bounced on the balls of her feet. She couldn't believe it! She'd get to see Italy! Well, just a little bit of it but still, it was worth the trip.

Jack turned to her and pointed at her thigh.

"Let me teach you how to hold and use that first," he said and he quickly (without any regard for her personal space _as usual_) reached down and moved her skirt away to grab the revolver. When his fingertips grazed her skin, Tooth's back went stiff and his fingers twitched slightly – that familiar, cold and electrical jolt every time they touched came rushing back.

Tooth gulped as Jack pulled back up. He turned the gun around in his long fingers and opened the cartridge before he closed it impressively.

"This is a Taurus M327," he said and held it up. "It's an automatic revolver with five rounds so you'll have to reload it once it's done." (Which he thought was _brilliant_ since he couldn't stomach the idea of Toothiana having guns with multiple bullets – with only five, she'd have to be more careful.)

"O-Okay," she said as she absorbed the information then Jack then handed it to her. She cringed away slightly.

"Don't worry, the safety's still on," he said with a creased forehead seeing how her expression went limp as the cool steel nestled into her palm. Tooth sighed and tried to relax her aching muscles.

Afterwards, Jack moved and rolled out the cube of concrete in the centre of the aisle. He ran his hand through his bangs and she gripped the gun's handle as he came beside her again.

"Okay so, it's a basic five-step procedure," he started to instruct and he lifted his arms in a motion for her to mimic.

"Lift it in your grip, pull it up tight to your torso, move it forward slightly, bring your other hand to hold it, then extend with both arms to shoot. Got it?"

They did it about two times before Jack showed her how to do it alone with each hand. Jack soon crossed his arms – he was surprised at how quick she was to remember and get the basics down until finally, she was ready to try a shot at the concrete.

When her stance was ready, Jack looked at the target ahead of her and then moved in beside her.

"Exhale before you're ready to shoot," he said calmly and deep above her head. "And empty your mind. Otherwise, your feelings show and your muscles tense if you don't. Got it?"

Tooth glanced up at his jaw before she sighed and she shut her eyes.

"Okay."

The tenor of his voice still echoed around in her head and tried to think of nothing as she tightened her grip on the handle. Jack watched her steadily.

'_Exhale...empty your mind...You can do it, Tooth.'_

Then, she breathed softly and opened them.

When Tooth fired two bullets in both hands and the last three in each hand...they got the target near to the center.

Her stance instantly relaxed and her mouth fell open.

"Wow," she breathed and Jack nodded as he uncrossed his arms. "Not bad but next time..."

And he moved behind her and held her wrists. As he pointed them and her gun to the floor, he tensed his biceps over her arms to show her how tightly her arms needed to be pressed to her sides.

"Point the gun down and look around first," he said and when he moved his head over hers she followed, inwardly loving the feeling of being in the crook of his neck. "_Then _you point it up at the target, okay?"

"S-Sure, Jack," she blushed and Jack moved away instantly, realising how _intimate_ that position was.

"Sorry," he mumbled and tried to cover his sudden unease as he quickly taught her how to reload the revolver.

Five minutes later, they left the plane for go for a midnight walk. Tooth decided to take the golden case North had given her in just case.

...

_12:42 am_

The air in Rome was considerably sweeter and less harsh in their lungs than the winter was in Russia. Jack puffed out a tiny breath of warm air and shoved his hands in his coat's pockets as he walked alongside Toothiana. She didn't wear her scarf since the temperature was about 13 degrees.

As they walked, they chatted about North and the violent getaway they'd managed to escape – or well, it was more Tooth babbling like a chatterbox and Jack giving short insight, but he was at least _trying_ and since he'd been around the princess for so long, he actually _wanted_ to.

When they reached the small shopping district the Elf was telling them about, Tooth squealed quietly and stared at picturesque scene.

The _Piaza della Pace_ was glittering reds and golds, and holiday wreaths wrapped every lamppost and electrical wire like ivy. Golden lights twinkled this way and that, lighting up the circular area without the need for streetlamps and moonlight. Both were surprised to see so many people walking out and around this late at night, but they figured, with Christmas being the next day, many people were probably off work and hitting the streets for fun. As a result, only a few shops were closed for the night while the rest of the cafes and gift shops remained wide open.

Tooth smiled.

"Wow, this is really beautiful," Tooth smiled serenely. She looked up at Jack. "Have you ever been here?"

"Not this area," he said without a hint of ice or annoyance in his tone. He was genuinely relaxed as he looked around. "But I have been around Venice and Milan for, you know..._spy_-related things."

"Aah," she said understandingly and nodded.

Jack then moved across the cobblestone walk and headed for an outdoor seating area used by the public. Filled with many, fancy iron chairs and tables used for eating, relaxing and meeting people, it was surrounded by a short, black-iron gate and overlooked a large dance floor next to a large fountain. As they took their seats next to the gate and closet to the stone dancefloor, they looked on as a group played their songs on loud speakers for the holiday folk. Many late-night couples were also already dancing on the floor despite the cold, the time, and the space. It was still breathtaking.

After a while, Tooth looked away and pulled out the golden semi-circular case North had given her. Jack lifted his eyebrows and leaned his arms on the table across from her.

"Why'd you bring that?" he asked as he watched her try to pull it apart.

"Argh, I want to know why he gave me this!" she said as she heaved under her breath and continued to pry its corners with her fingernails. Jack rose an eyebrow at her.

"But it's not for _you,_" he pointed out then glared at her softly. "It's for that ELF with your handmaiden, remember?"

"I know, I know, but...I'm just...curious!" she laughed slightly and after one final tug, she sighed and put it on the table between them.

"Ugh, forget it!" she whined and put a hand under her chin. Her magenta eyes still fixated on it while Jack bit the inside of his cheek. He didn't say anything and looked back around the area, eyeing all the people with mild discretion and assessment.

Tooth after a bit flit her gaze back up at him and inwardly sighed.

She figured by now – hell, a _long _time ago – that her crush on Jack was obvious and apparent. She was never one to hide her true feelings well like him and she was certain he knew, based on all his spy training and attention to physical acuteness, how attracted she was to him. And as much as she wished she could go back in time and be the mature, mysterious girl she thought he was probably more into, there _was _no going back.

Jack felt her eyes on him and turned back to her. His light, brown bangs flew up in the breeze and she looked at the snow settling onto his hair.

"Something wrong?"

"So how do you do it?" she finally asked. He watched as he began to play with her fingers and he was inwardly swept away again by the sheer golden light of her jewellery and her new look for the gala. He really saw the true princess right there in front of him and it almost scared him – this wasn't the Toothiana he knew before, and yet it was. It was all so confusing.

"Do what?"

"Your ...center gene," she said, finally saying the word. Jack's eyes widened.

"You heard when North and I were talking about it?"

"Y-Yeah, back in the alley."

Jack closed his mouth. He was sort of glad she hadn't heard his and North's conversation in the workshop while she was sleeping. He didn't want her to freak out over him when she had bigger problems to take care of.

"Yeah so um..." she pedalled through again. "How does your gene do it?"

Jack paused for a moment and opened his mouth slightly – Tooth watched as a small puff of air left his pale lips.

"It's..." he tried to start and it was weird that he found himself _wanting_ to tell her. He didn't feel the need to snap a classic-Jack, _'It's none of your damn business!' _because all Jack could think was...if he told her, or at least _tried _to then it would...make her smile again. And Jack wasn't so vain or dense to admit it – he liked to see her smile. He'd seen too much frowning, tears, and rage in a lifetime for it to now transfer onto a girl who'd never had so before – and he wanted to keep it that way. So Jack looked up at the falling snow and rubbed his neck.

"It's almost natural to me," he said. "Like a part of me now...I feel the wind move across my skin..."

Then, he paused to lift his usually ungloved hand and showed Tooth his fingers.

"And I can just touch the current but it's so acute...almost hypersensitive. The wind feels like nothing to everyone but to me, it's like a thread. It's thick and when it weaves around me...I trace it."

He then flexed his fingers and that was when Tooth realized that when he did that, it wasn't a nervous twitch he had...he was actually grasping for something – he was catching the wind!

After a moment, Jack tilted his wrist slightly and followed an invisible current within his palm and pulled.

"Then I find the direction and I just...tug on it. And it listens."

And when he twirled a finger up slightly, Tooth watched with a mesmerized gaze as the snow falling in front of them, above Jack's forefinger, began to float back up slightly. It started to spin in a tiny, barely visible tornado.

No one else would notice against the rest of the snowfall but as Tooth leaned forward, she blinked in wonder as she counted the little flakes dancing in a happy, lazy circle at Jack's command.

_"It's like magic..."_ she whispered and grinned softly. Jack then lifted all his fingers and twisted his wrist in a circular motion and she watched as all more snowflakes caught in the wind current and grew larger. The wind was quickly spinning around their table and the snowflakes drifted in a circle.

After another moment, Jack snapped his hand up and the wind scattered delightfully and all the rustling around Tooth's hair stopped.

"J...Jack! That's...O-Oh my god," she complimented as he put his hand down back on the table and stared at her. She smiled at him. "Your gene's a...i-it's a gift! To have that, over the wind, something no one else will ever experience...you're special."

"It's really just the North wind," he said humbly and caught some snowflakes in his palm – they didn't melt instantly like they did for everybody. He frowned and waited until they did. "I can control most breezes but my command over the Northern winds is much more stronger...that's why I prefer colder climates. So does my body temperature."

And Tooth made a sound of agreement in the back of her throat as a tiny shiver came over her through her trenchcoat.

"And North has the gene too..." she added. "I wonder who else does, and how you're all connected."

Jack looked her steadily for a moment before he leaned over the table again and stared down at the case between them.

"Princess," he asked. "How does your private tutor know about all of this? Why does North know him?"

Tooth blinked up at him.

"You mean Mr. Sanderson?"

He nodded and she sighed and put the case back in her coat pocket, in case anyone would see it.

"I-I don't know...truthfully, I don't," she answered and fiddled with her gold earring absentmindedly. "He's always been a quiet man, and I mean that in the literal sense."

"Well, what _can _you tell me about him?" he asked again – he didn't want to sound demanding or like he was pestering her and Tooth somehow saw that in him and she smiled.

He was just trying to put together the pieces like she was.

Toothiana clasped her hands on the table and leaned forward slightly until they were about a meter apart. Her shoulders were hunched from the cold unlike Jack's relaxed ones. Then, she opened her mouth.

"It's a long story," she timidly replied and sent her a tiny smile. Jack just shook his head gently.

"I'm not going anywhere."

And Tooth's nervous smile stretched into a warm one. So, she started.

"When I was a baby, my mother died and when I was 10, so did my father. After he did, my royal council told me he wanted me to study English and be more culturally-adept than him so we could expand the country's relations once I grew up and took over...So while my uncle rules in my stead, they sent to school in the States and for eight months of the year, I lived in a private school there then flew back home for four."

Jack's eyebrows furrowed together in concern.

"Isn't that a hard change for a ten-year-old?" he asked. "Did you want to?"

But Tooth shook her head vigorously and beamed up at him.

"Oh no, I never questioned my father's decisions – even now, I know it was for the best and that he wanted what was best for me too."

"So you're not mad?"

"Not even a little," she said and made a puny gesture with her two fingers pinched together. "I loved him very much and, I miss him every day even though he's just a memory now."

Jack nodded solemnly and frowned.

"And what about your mother?"

But Tooth just shrugged and wrapped her coat around her tighter.

"I...I've never seen a picture of her, but even though she gave me life, I didn't know anything about her, I guess." Jack frowned at her tone– Tooth felt nothing for her mother and while it was kind of accepted since the Queen died at her birth, he still felt their weird pit growing in his stomach like he wanted to criticize her for her thoughts.

"So," he started again. "How does this lead back to Sanderson?"

And Tooth dark look disappeared from her face instantly as she looked at him again.

"After my father died, Mr. Sanderson came out of nowhere and began to take care of me and my handmaidens...Oh, they've been with me since they were little girls so we're all like sisters...He looked after me and became my private tutor when I flew home between countries for four months. But it was weird at first."

"Because...?"

And Tooth shrugged bashfully as she remembered the memories like photographs in her head. She smiled sadly suddenly.

"Mr. Sanderson is a mute," she explained. "He doesn't talk and so the rest of the people in the palace found it hard to communicate with him. But I did so I helped him when he needed to talk to other people."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "When did you learn sign language?" But Tooth shook her head.

"I never did. I just _knew_ what he was saying and understood..." And Jack watched as her sad smile blossomed into a tender one – it nearly took his breath away.

"...all the way up from the time when he first started helping me get to sleep."

* * *

_Years ago._

* * *

_A short man, with a round buoyant figure, bounded down the dark and silent hallways of the Hypunjam Palace. After a quick bow from her sad-looking royal guards, he approached the princess' room and knocked, he opened her door and peeked in. The fire from her fireplace was lit to keep the chilly wind from the island thunderstorm out. He found the eleven-year-old curled on a rug in front of it with coins scattered all around her. _

_Each coin was from a different country and given to her by the late king and now by Prime Minister Bangkot when he returned from his many conferences around the world. Tooth's favourite pastime was to collect them and count what each was worth – and with her gift, she liked to translate each funny little symbol when no one seemed to._

_But tonight, when her private tutor found her on the floor in her pyjamas, she wasn't happily counting...she was crying. Like several nights before._

_"Daddy...hpmh, d-daddy..."_

_Mr. Sanderson frowned sadly and shut the door behind him. He then hobbled over on tight feet across the girl's large room and walked up to her.__ With every step, her cries bounced around the room like a broken lullaby on repeat. When he patted her hand three times, the little princess sat up and faced him._

_Tooth squeezed her eyes shut and made a fist in her Scooby Doo t-shirt._

"_I-I'm still scared, sir," she admitted and tried to wipe the tears that leaked out. "I-I still see his funer-funera' and I d...and I don't want to–"_

_She then blindly reached down for the coins that Haroom gave her on his royal trips and held them tightly. "I ha-have to...I-I..." _

_She was trying to tell her new nanny that she was trying to block out the bad memories and keep the good, but the words just weren't coming out. But Sanderson had a way of knowing. For all his silence and secret smiles, he did, and that was why Toothiana trusted him so quickly the first time he'd arrived._

_He pulled her up by her hands and Tooth clung on__ like a lifeline and stood up. Then, almost equal to his short height, Sanderson escorted the little girl to her bed. He wished he was larger so that he could carry her but this was the best he could do. Bu Tooth appreciated it – she liked trying to be strong on her own two feet._

_Tooth rubbed her eyes again once she got into bed._

"_I-I'll keep tr-tryin-ng, Mr. Sa-Sanders'n," she hiccupped loudly before biting her lip. "W-What is it that you tol...told me to b-believe again?"_

_And he nodded and signed it slowly._

_'Choose love over fear, and you will always win.'_

_After that, he told the story of a great prince, hummingbirds, and peppermint trees, and another about superheroes who saved the world with superpowers and a princess that could help._

_Several times she looked up at him to smile, loving his make-believe fairytales, but each time she stared up at his golden hair and even-more-golden eyes, Tooth's eyes grew droopier and less focused._

_She then quickly fell into a deep sleep, and her hiccups became less._

* * *

"After that, whenever I had nightmares or trouble sleeping...he's been there, he always was," she finished. "It's why I can never be mad at him, for whatever thing he might be involved with all this...because all those memories matter, and they hold the most precious parts of my childhood."

Jack's chest didn't feel so constricted as he watched her finish, like that tight band holding him seemed to loosen. The genuine affection in her voice told him that Tooth was forever grateful and humble of the people she had like Sanderson in her life. It made him respect a man he'd never met and believe that even with his presence, Toothiana was still as strong as she was today. Always fighting, always trying, always loving...

It also explained to him why she didn't seem so _regal_ since the first time they met – she'd grown up a like a relatively normal girl in the States, not a princess in the Southeast. Jack felt his eyes relax to their natural state, no longer glaring at the corners or tense from anxiety as they melted away while he looked at her.

Seeing his blank expression, Tooth figured his mind must have spaced out and she shrugged again with a nervous chuckle.

"A-And that's why I'm the way I am today," she tried to perk up, urgent to bring energy back to their conversation – this might be the only chance she got with Jack before he went all spy-crazy on her ass again.

"Pfft, yeah crazy," he joked and she kicked him under the table.

After he grunted, he threw her a dubious look.

"Hang on, how many languages _do_ you know?"

She blushed, wondering where that had come from.

_'I'm busted!'_

"Uhm...alot."

He raised an eyebrow.

"English," he said as he lifted his fingers, counting them off. "Thai, Viet, Malay, French, Russian, Sign, Spanish and Italian I'm not sure but I-"

"O-Okay!" she whined with a nervous chuckle and put her hands on his arm to stop him. Jack stopped and looked down at her questionably.

"Can we not talk about that at this very moment? Haha, m-maybe save it for another time and focus on...something else?"

She shot Jack a small smile.

He complied and crossed his arms on the table again.

"Okay well, what about your crazy flying schedule?" he inquired, liking this civil conversation they were actually capable of having...you know, minus her kicking. "Back and forth _bi-annually?"_

And she rolled her eyes playfully.

_"You_ do it all the time as a spy! B-Besides it's not like I hate the constant traveling. I LOVE to fly!"

And Jack watched her eyes grow wide as she opened her hands and looked at the sky.

"The feeling of being in the air, seeing the high winds and the clouds out the window...I don't get air sick or vertigo like that. I'm always fine so I-I don't mind living in two countries simultaneously!"

And she grinned and looked down at the table again to avoid Jack's stare. She sighed.

"I get to tell my 'sisters' about all the people and places I get to see and one day, hopefully all those relationships will pay off when I help my people, and my country."

And Jack nodded. He didn't say anything, but her words resonated with him and pleasantly filed away in his brain like a special key hung on a rack. She then quickly added something.

"I especially want our peppermint industry to continue flourishing...I don't want my people to dependent on anyone. I want the rest of the big countries to know that we can take care of ourselves!"

And Jack lifted his eyebrows.

"Wait," he stopped her, finally putting two-and-two together. "So is _that_ why you chew gum alot? Because you like peppermint?"

"Uhh...I _guess_," she admitted with a blushing smile. She rubbed her arm after.

"Since my father died, I chewed it alot to help with my anxiety...it reminded me of my father since all his robes smelled like mint. Come to think of it, the entire _island_ does so yeah, you could say I have a bit of a craving...A-And it doesn't help that since peppermint's our main export to a lot of gum manufacturers, they send us free packs all the time so I've always carried one but not since I've been stuck with you. Wait! Not like that, I-I mean, not to say I'm not _grateful_ for you rescuing me but you have to admit, you could make a nun swear and it doesn't help that I think I'm suffering from gum withdrawal–OH!"

She slapped her hands over her mouth and shut up instantly. Jack blinked at her sudden reaction and the two froze waiting for the other to move.

Tooth moved first and dropped her hands from her mouth as she laughed.

"Sorry," she mumbled and blushed down at the table. "I-I must sound really dumb right now."

But when she flit her eyes nervously back up at him, she froze.

He wasn't mad or weirded out.

He blinked at her for a second and the next thing he knew...

His lips turned up at the corners...and he smiled at her for the first time.

"No," he said softly and shook his head.

When he looked up at her again, the smile still on his face, all for her, "You're not. "

And her princess heart melted under his warm, maple gaze. She smiled back nervously and her eyelids falling over her gaze partially.

_'He's smiling...oh god, Tooth...you did it.'_

And Jack would forever keep the happy look on her beautiful heart-shaped face etched in his mind.

After a bit of quiet, the song on the dance floor changed the crowd moved to more upbeat tunes. Tooth and Jack watched them in comfortable silence as Tooth laughed several times and hummed parts she knew. Jack took the moment to look around the district but he abruptly stood up.

"What's wrong?" Tooth asked and raised her eyebrows.

Jack turned to look at her over his shoulders and jerked his thumb over at a shop couldn't pick out.

"I'm just gonna get us something," he replied and moved away.

...

_Piaza della Pace court, 1:03 am_

Jack came back several minutes later with his rubles exchanged for EU currency, and two steaming cups of mocha lattes. Tooth grinned up and took the coffee-hot-chocolate mixture from his outstretched hand, grateful for the shot of caffeine in it to keep her going but also for the chocolate that kept her holiday feelings in check.

After she took a sip, she tucked a personal note in her mental wishlist.

'_Definitely come back here for hot chocolate drinks!'_ she cheered – Italy did well to please her sweet cravings and she was happy the drink tasted so yummy.

As they went back to watching the couples again dancing, the song ended and a new one was put on.

_(Italian) "This one is by special request from Paolo to Claudia. Buon Natale (Merry Christmas), you two..."_

Suddenly, a piano and a guitar duet began to softly play and Jack looked at Toothiana. She was cooing in her chair.

"_OHHH!"_ she squealed quietly with bright eyes. "I LOVE this song_._.."

She immediately turned to face the couples completely and leaned over her coffee cup as she swayed to the music. As she did, her dark hair and the feather atop her head bent slightly in the breeze – then began to hum adoringly.

Jack watched in interest as her eyes grew glassy to the rest of the world and she got lost in an unknown world where her mind and feelings were one. And when a man started to sing, he watched her pink lips mouth the words perfectly.

He felt any piece of stress shred away instantly.

Toothiana paid him no heed as she grew swept up in the moment. And who knew, being here, seeing all this, couldn't have happened without the guy across from her?

Tooth's smile grew into a wide grin that she tried to hide behind her cup. Jack would think it was because of the song when she really meant it for him. Unbeknownst to her, Jack's smile returned on his face as he watched her bliss.

She was truly remarkable, and he'd been too stubborn to just admit it. But now he did, he _wanted_ to, and Jack was willing to do anything now to keep her not only protected...but _happy,_ and to earn more of her trust.

"And if all my stars are leading me to you..._Ooooh ooh ooh,"_ she mumbled and giggled softly.

Then suddenly out of nowhere, a tall shadow appeared at her side and Tooth looked up.

A young man, ebony-haired, handsome, and older than both her and Jack by a year or two was smiling down at her. He held out his hand and eyed the dancefloor surreptitiously.

_(Italian) "Miss, would you like to dance?"_ she translated him saying courteously._"I see that you like this song."_

Tooth blinked and her breath caught in her throat.

"Me? I–"

_"'Spetta (Wait),"_ Jack interrupted softly and moved to get up. "We're actually not staying long."

When Toothiana turned to look at him, he had a blank look on his face as he was gazing up at the other man. To anyone, he looked bored but Tooth had been with him for so long and was more used to his angry face than his calm one that she could easily find the tense and bitter features he put on.

He didn't like the guy coming up to her – and that made her heart beat faster.

'_Could he be...'_ she thought, too nervous to finish.

The Italian man didn't seem to pick on it as he continued to smile, no doubt on high from the holiday vibe and beautiful evening.

"Please,_ signore (sir)? _Just one dance with your lovely girl, to a song she likes," he offered politely and he lifted his hand again.

Jack opened to say something again - but he stopped and looked at Tooth. He saw a blush come on her face and twiddle her thumbs in conflict before she frowned to herself and looked up at him.

Toothiana shot him a knowing smile and opened her mouth to decline, afraid that the operative would knock him out.

But after a split second, Jack surprised her.

"You know what?...You're right," Jack said softly to the man and Tooth watched his tense face fall into a relaxed expression. He moved back down into his seat then looked at her.

"You should go, _Kat_," he said switching back to English. "You like this song."

Her eyebrows flew up astonished.

"But I th–"

"_Grazie," _the man thanked Jack and Tooth put her hand in his as she kept looking at him.

"S-Seriously?"

Jack nodded and threw a hand up as if to say 'you're welcome' as she stood up and followed the man around the short, iron fence. When the two were on the dancefloor, just as her favourite part came on, the man took his position and the danced in a small, circle.

Tooth's immediate fall into her ballroom dancing lessons kicked in and she gracefully floated with him in a small circle. The man praised her instantly for her natural steps and she looked up at him with a kind smile. Then they settled into a more comfortable pace to match the rhythm of her favourite song.

For several seconds, Toothiana tried to enjoy the wonderful gift that Italy had given her and the warmth she felt in her heart after all those days of anxiety of fear. She shut her eyes briefly and laughed in the cold air as the Italian made a comment she understood.

But as quickly as she was enjoying herself, it all went away.

It didn't feel exactly right...all of this, being on the dancefloor and under the glittering lights, she felt out of place, not because she felt like a foreigner in a European city, but...

(And when the Italian man turned them in a comfortable circle just as a violin part played, her body was facing the iron fence, the tables, and the man sitting at one of him, she looked at him across the floor.)

...but because she knew she wanted to be somewhere else.

Jack was fiddling with a salt shaker and eyeing the people around him still with a relaxed expression – until his head snapped back to the dancefloor, sensing her gaze.

The two stared at each other for what felt like hours. Tooth's mouth fell open slightly as if she wanted to say something to him while Jack leaned on the table and did nothing but keep his gaze locked with hers.

Jack's insides were on fire, his chest strangely filled with the same energy that awoke with his gene – but it was warm not cold. It wrapped him up like a warm blanket and he didn't want it to go away. Toothiana's eyes, the snow around her...he almost lost himself in the numb feeling and unlike his need for usual espionage sensory...he wanted it to feel numb. He wanted it to consume him and slow down time rather than speed it up. He looked back to the table.

But by then, she'd already seen it.

Tooth stiffened.

When she and her partner began to move again in the circle, she lost sight of him to the other direction. The Italian man looked down at her with a smile but stopped when he caught her stunned expression.

He immediately understood, eyeing Jack in his peripheral vision and chuckled under his breath. Before the song even finished, he pulled away from Toothiana and stopped their dance.

Tooth was about to ask him what was wrong when he grabbed her hand and kissed her wrist.

"_Grazie, la mia bella signora (Thank you my lovely lady),"_ he said softly and let her go. "And _Buon Natale._"

"_Buon Natale,_" she repeated with a kind (and grateful) smile before she exited the dance floor.

When she reached Jack, she slowed her steps at their table as he got up, forgetting their cold drinks on the table.

"Jack?" she asked softly and he waited for her to finish, whilst partly wanting to say something himself.

But after a moment, the song still playing behind them stole whatever words were forming on their lips and they dropped it.

"U-Uh..." Tooth tried but let out a breathy laugh and Jack put his hands in his pocket as he looked at the couples awkwardly.

He then looked back at her and jerked his neck at the floor again.

"Come on," he said and her eyebrows rose.

"W-What?" A warm blush blossomed on her tan cheeks.

"I owe you for all the shit I put you through," and a small knowing smile crossed his face again. "Remember?"

He then stuck out his arm for her but Tooth was still on standstill so he rolled his eyes and caught her hand instead.

"Jeez," he mumbled softly as he tugged her back around the iron fence. He blocked out all the warm glances of older couples staring at him and her. "I try to do something nice for you again and you question it?"

"It's not that." Jack froze midway, his cold hand still wrapped around her warm one.

"It isn't?

When he looked back at her, he found her smiling gently and shaking her head. She chuckled to herself and took her hand out of his palm and moved it up to his arm – then it was _her_ leading him.

Jack said nothing as he watched her float across the stone dancefloor, clicking lightly in her heels, and gripping his arm like an anchor. They didn't stop until they were in the middle.

"Do you dance?" she asked lightly as she timidly placed her hand on his broad shoulder and Jack instantly swept his hand behind her hold under her shoulder blade.

"Yes." And his fingers twitched in the light cross breeze.

Tooth's palm was warm and incredibly soft while Jack's larger hand, quickly wrapping itself around hers like a cocoon was cold and smooth. Her breath caught slightly as they began to sway and he began rubbing her thumb absentmindedly. As they moved, she realised he was even more light and solid on his feet than he was during his stealth combat.

"Where were you during my prom?" she laughed lightly and Jack looked down at her with a raised eyebrow.

"What makes you think I'd have taken you to your prom?" he asked lightly and she grinned.

"I'm a _you-know-what_, Ja..._Adrian,_" she bantered. "You wouldn't have had a choice."

Then they fell into comfortable silence as they moved in a slow circle. Tooth looked up several times, nervous that he was growing bored but each time she looked, his face seemed to grow more soft.

_'The little shit. No time for fun, my ass,'_ she teased. _'He's enjoying this!'_ And a stadium filled with cheering people erupted in her head – Tooth sighed to herself.

"What?"

And when she looked up at Jack, she saw his openly curious expression. She opened her mouth–but the wind blew in at the exact moment and pushed her strands into her face.

_'Wow what a mood killer!'_ she laughed in her head and shut her eyes as it tickled her eyelashes.

"Stopping blowing wind in my face!" she joked and she missed his third (incredibly tiny) smile.

"Oh so, now you just assume I'm at fault?"

And she shrugged as a reply and leaned into Jack more to cover herself from the wind.

He tensed, thinking she wanted to hug him...and god knows, he'd gone long without any kind of physical contact. Their cover-up in Moscow to hide from the police was the only time he'd ever wanted to really hold Toothiana around the waist intentionally but she'd been so affectionate to him with all her touches of his shoulder and his arms, and his neck.

He still remembered the touch of her hands in his hair, her lips on his ear...when was last time he'd let himself be open to anyone like that? Jack Frost was known for his untouchable nature and hostile aversion to anything involving another person. Hell, not even twenty hours ago when she grabbed his hand, he put her in a _freaking arm twist!_ And that guy in the bar? He didn't even want to picture her expression again after he'd just reacted on impulse and snapped his neck.

That's why Jack DIDN'T want to touch anything, hold anyone...but she kept doing it and it was like a breath of fresh air, a balm to the frozen extremities that he thought would never thaw.

So he needed to try, _he needed to,_ because she reminded him that, sometimes the little things were just as much worth fighting for as the bigger, more important ones.

"Sorry...I..." she started to say but she stopped when Jack tentatively dropped his ballroom stance and wrapped his hands around her back. He was stiff and near immobile as the cold wind crept around his neck and fluttered his bowtie. He didn't dare say a word and just pulled her in, completing the hug she was too timid to complete.

It wasn't a full blown wrap-around or some passionate embrace, god no...but Jack liked it and tried not to mess up their dance with their new position.

Not that Tooth minded.

When she peeked up and saw his ears turn red and smiled.

"T-Thanks," she grinned as the curled ends of the hair framing her face flew up into her eyes again. He pulled away slightly at the sound of her voice but when he looked down at her, he immediately blinked.

Beyond his normal control, Jack pushed her dark hair away from her cheek with his knuckle...but he didn't...he couldn't seem to pull it away when he felt how soft her cheek was.

Tooth's eyes flew open and she looked up at the brunette.

A million things ran through her mind as she found herself disappearing in his wide-eyed gaze. As she did, her heart thumped wildly under her dress and her hand found its place on the front of his trenchcoat.

Jack wanted to know what she was thinking.

Yet the more he kept staring down at her, catching all her flecks of color in the tiny, white lights, the more he kept getting lost...getting lost in all the colours.

Her blue-green dress was peeking out from beneath her coat, her gold jewelry, her feathers, her hair...

And then her jewel-toned eyes...Eyes that held every piece of _light_ North was talking about – a family, a dream, a future. Jack wanted to know what her dreams were, what her future was, and the pink pulled him down...without him even realizing.

Jack wasn't aware as his eyes began to squint. He kept looking into her irises and the more he searched, the more Tooth wanted to drift up and catch him. She wasn't sure what was happening and she gripped his coat in support.

Jack felt the tug and unconsciously moved his hand at her shoulder blade down to encase her waist – and after so many times of having to grab her there, it almost felt natural to him.

Their dance began to slow down.

They just kept staring, searching, wanting to help the other and when Tooth shivered in the wind, Jack's senses went into such a state of sensitivity. It all put Tooth on some kind of level of bliss where her heart felt like it was going into palpitation – and she didn't mind.

Happily, Toothiana shut her eyelids, enjoying as a warm puff of air from his lips fluttered her bangs. She decided to just enjoy his closeness since she knew it wouldn't last.

But without her eyes to look at, Jack couldn't stop himself...He ended up staring at her lips.

Her plush lips shone under the Italian glow. And for once, he didn't want to fight it.

Jack lifted his knuckle from her cheek, intent on cupping it instead.

His heart beat wildly and as the music hit an end note, the ex-operative slowly leaned down, hovering his mouth over hers and shut his eyes.

When his mouth was within distance of hers...

...he suddenly froze.

Toothiana was an inch, an _inch_ away – but still, he knew.

_'Don't.'_

Jack opened his eyes slightly and caught her smiling, blissfully unaware. He held his head over hers like the guard he always was and let her smile radiate heat into him. He'd do anything to keep her happy - he could give her things, defend her, smile, or touch her for comfort...but anything else beyond that made his chest grow tight, made it harder to breathe.

_'Not her,'_ he begged himself.

Jack then frowned, tilting his forehead down resignedly until their bangs touched – but that was it.

_'You can hurt anyone else...but not her.'_

And it hurt.

This was as close as he could let himself get to her and that was enough...just enough.

That's when he heard the ELF agent in his complink.

"You guys, ready?" he asked into the invisible earpiece. "The tank filled early so we're good to go."

He then cut out and Jack paused, his heart almost aching from the constant dissatisfaction. That's when a new song started playing and Jack silently exhaled.

Tooth stopped dancing and fluttered her eyelids open. Her long eyelashes leaped up at the closeness of his face.

"What is it?" she asked now more perceptive of his behaviour as he was of hers. Jack pulled away and pointed at his ear.

"He's ready," Jack said and Tooth blinked before a sad smile came on her face.

"Oh..." she started. "A-Alright then."

And with a feeling from the moment both didn't want to speak aloud, they stepped away from each other, hearts beating a little faster and skin flushed and heated in the winter air.

Tooth sighed and took looked back at the dancefloor and around the Roma district. "I'm going to miss this place," she mumbled and Jack nodded before he looked down at her again.

"Well then keep it in your memory," he said and held out an arm for her (almost awkwardly again). "Your most precious ones are, right?"

Then the two proceeded to leave the public area and travel back to the airport – but as they left the golden streets and the Christmas music started to play again, Tooth looked back over her shoulder and shot it a secret smile.

Several of the Italian folk watched the handsome brunette and his dark-skinned beauty glide away into the holiday night, warm and adoring.

...

_1:30 am_

The jet left the beauty of Rome and the ELF flew them 2hrs and 30 minutes onward to Wales. Jack decided to speak with the ELF in the cockpit while Tooth stayed behind in the cabin to keep trying to open the case in secrecy.

But after a while, it tumbled into her lap and she fell asleep from exhaustion.

She wasn't prepared for what her dreams would play.

In it, all her sisters were blurry and she realized she was lying on top of something – a table, a bed, she wasn't sure.

Then slowly, one by one, they all vanished until the last one, Tuila, was snatched instead by Pitch from behind.

"TULIA!" Tooth wanted to cry out...but it ended being a gasp for air.

When she blinked, a pink fog rolled into the empty room above her and made her senses dizzy, her head swimming.

Then, she felt something flutter past her ear. When Tooth looked sideways, she realized it was Aani, the yellow canary that belonged to the little boy from the Vietnamese motel. It flew past her and landed on Jack's shoulder a few feet away. He was smiling and holding out a hand for her to take.

"Stay close," he whispered but when she reached up and took hold of it, he suddenly yanked her and someone else took over.

Then the dream became more real and she was violently being pulled by a man in red – an ELF.

_**"RUN!"**_

_**"I-I CAN'T, sir! I can't not in these–"**_

_**"But you must Tia! YOU MUST! So quickly, keep running!"**_

_**Tooth choked back a painful cry as she ran in Tia's favourite teal-coloured dress and pounded her shoes down the dark tunnel. There were fire torches lining all the way to the end.**_

_**"******__W_e have to get away! This tunnel...Istanbul is just beyond–"

_**And Tooth tripped and flew toward th–**_

Tooth's eyes flew open.

She took a moment to collect her breath before she pulled up from the chair. She eyed a clock and realized they were about to land soon and looked around.

Across the tiny aisle, Jack was sitting in his chair. He was busy trying to open the ELF's case for her.

It didn't take him as long as her though and soon, they both heard a loud _chik!_ and the case meant for the ELF opened.

"Jack, you did it!" she whispered happily afraid that if the ELF found out, he'd tell North. Jack was equally ecstatic since he'd never seen such a container before and wondered what it would hold.

But when he pulled out the short slips of paper from it and Tooth leaned over to see, they both froze.

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: I couldn't decide here's a double dose! "Safe & Sound" (ft. The Civil Wars) – Taylor Swift** (Tooth and Mr. Sanderson's official song)** and "I See You" – Mika**  
T****he song used for Jack/Tooth's dance was "Oh My Stars" by Andrew Belle. And please don't ask why songs change haha. There's alot of conflict in terms of symbolism.**


	20. The Night Toothiana Lost Herself

**Ok let's be real, I've gotta stop kidding myself. These chapters are never gonna be short again. I'm terribly sorry guys, haha honest! I'll keep trying. Still, haha you have permission to come after me but I warn you I'll just yap you to death hehe, so bring it. Lol and as always, thanks for joining on me on the ride! I just love sharing a new piece with you each week. (:**

* * *

_Over Wales, 3:39 am_

_'What in the world?'_

The golden case lay limp in Jack's hand as his mind swam with questions. He had so many but the only one that kept coming back to the forefront of his mind was _what. What_ was he looking at?

He bit the inside of his cheek.

Jack put it in his lap and gingerly lifted several rectangular sheets of paper. Then dark eyebrows scrunched together under his bangs, he began to analyse them.

Tooth looked up at him preparedly.

She didn't understand what was written on the pieces but figured maybe he'd decode it quicker than she could. Each rectangle was a different size with bunches of swirls and lines all drawn in blue ink. Many strokes went off the edges and some were thicker than others with a couple dashes scattered around. It was all very strange and somehow alluring, but what made the entire thing more sinister than it appeared, were the crude letters and numbers marked on each. Words like _time, density, scripts like Ω_ and ∞, floated around almost aimlessly – it all looked like gibberish! And Tooth could understand languages not advanced science, and the symbols and broken letters weren't forming any sentences.

But after a couple more seconds, a light in Jack's brain went off and he glared at the slips.

"They're jigsaw puzzles," he mumbled accurately.

Tooth blinked as she leaned in closer.

"You're sure? Because each rectangles' a different size. They won't fit each other."

She hadn't asked to sound condescending but wanted to make sure he gave himself the extra reassurance. Jack still nodded as he turned a few in his pale fingers.

"It's an advanced 'squaring the square' tiling game for problem-solving," he explained. "You have to create the integral square using the sides with integer lengths – you know, figure out how to fit each piece in correctly so you get one perfect square...except this time I think it's gonna be a rectangle."

"I guessed as much after you said _squaring the square,"_ Tooth sighed but brightened up when she reached over the aisle and pointed at two pieces.

"But hey, don't look so bummed!" she teased, pointing out his darkening scowl as he tried to resize each piece with what Tooth would call his beautiful, genius mind. "Because look, we can just match these blue lines to the ones on some of the others...and I'm sure these letters form sentences if you can do it."

"You mean, _we._"

And Tooth's face quickly grew warm when she stared up at Jack's serious gaze. She gave a nervous chuckle and smiled up at him.

"I-I'll do my best," she sighed and when her breath hit his nose, he tensed slightly. It still laced with the chocolate and coffee from earlier and reminded him of their dance. His ears tinged a slight red but Toothiana didn't see it as he began to rub his hand over it bitterly.

"Okay let's get started," Jack whispered and he quickly began taking each rectangle and handing them to her. He wanted this strange puzzle decoded _now_ before he let yet another interruption happen on his account. Maybe it was a list of shipping reports for the other ELF, or a secret map of North's ELF system. He could use a new route to stealth through international security.

But as an image of what looked disturbingly like a foot passed on one rectangular sheet, Jack's vision flashed white.

"_**And start!...'is speed count, doc... 124...32...43, well I'...Time!...Not bad, son. Not bad."**_

When he came back, Jack looked up at a spot on the wall thoughtfully – that one definitely was new, but it helped boost his confidence slightly.

Tooth didn't notice as she pulled an empty snack trolley beside her and wheeled it between them in the aisle. Jack dropped the sheets flat on the surface and she deftly spread them out, eyeing each with nervous excitement. This was all so weird and as she hummed softly to herself, she hoped that the image the twenty-or-so pieces would make would be worth the work.

That's when her fingers touched a certain rectangle piece. It stood out more to her than the rest.

Tooth lifted a delicate eyebrow and glided it near to her. It was still all gibberish and said nothing she could understand...but it had a bright red stain, a splotch that looked like it had dried several years ago.

Tooth kept squinting at it. It could have very well passed as blood and Jack might've caught her and thought she was a weirdo – not that that ship hadn't already sailed.

But still...to the Hypunjam princess, it felt familiar to her somehow–

_Ding! _

"_I'll be making a descent in two minutes, guys, so have your seatbelts buckled. Oh, and welcome to Wales!"_

Jack gritted his teeth in frustration.

"We should do this later," he sighed and Tooth agreed as she quickly began to push the rectangles slips back to Jack.

The entire time until Jack put them all back into the case, she kept her eyes fixed on the one piece with the red spot, rubbing her fingers at the familiar texture it also left on her fingertips.

...

_Wales, 3:57 am or really, 2: 57 am_

The _Sleigh Runner_ landed in Wales an hour behind Rome, so it was really close to _three _and when North's ELF agent escorted them off the jet, they were met with a limousine. It would driven by another ELF in disguise and upon arrival, he gave Tooth a set of brown-coloured contacts (delivered from North) and Jack showed her how to put them in. When she asked if he'd ever done it before, he passed it off as if it was obvious. Then they were off.

It was a smooth ride but right away Tooth knew the temperature was colder than Rome and she bundled herself tighter into coat. Jack peeked over at her from where he sat lounging his long legs across the adjacent couch line. His trenchcoat was open, skin not feeling the temperature drop and he was fiddling with his white shirt's cuff under the tuxedo again.

Watching her under his intense, maple gaze, his forehead creased.

He knew it wasn't as cold here as it had been in Moscow, and even _then_ she didn't have a jacket or scarf as she did now. But after everything with the airport frenzy, the posters, the Nightmare ambush, and _the entire plethora of what had come with meeting Nicolas St. North and his crazy European spy team,_ Jack's attention to the princess seemed to have gotten worse – or better? He wasn't sure he could categorize it, not that he wanted to.

Noticing meant he appreciated her well-being in a certain way, which meant he had a particular way of looking at her, and if he had a particular way of looking at her, it meant that he cared.

And while he wanted to look out for her well being, Jack knew it wasn't his place as a spy, as her bodyguard to notice things, notice _her_ like that.

And that left a bitter taste on his tongue.

"Ouch!"

He blinked when he saw her pull her hand away from her mouth. The whole ride, Tooth kept biting her painted fingernails anxiously and she broke some skin.

"I don't have any bandages on me," he spoke up, biting his cheek again almost apologetically. The ELF put his police belt in storage until the gala would be over, along with the rest of their things.

Tooth snapped her head up at him, coming back to earth at the sound of his voice.

"What?"

The brunette blew a heavy breath past his lips and leaned forward on his knees after moving them off the couch.

"Are you alright?" he asked as he frowned, trying to read her thoughts with his ever-calculative mind.

Tooth nodded and pushed some of her hair behind her ear. Jack seemed more comfortable reaching out to her now, what a miracle...but then she figured it was probably more due to the fact that she'd been staring out the window like spazz. She _was _thinking awfully hard about which handmaiden would be waiting for her since North never specified.

"I will be, once we get to the hotel," she sighed happily.

"Maybe you should chew some gum until get there," he instead suggested and pointed at her elegant clutch in her lap where the pack (along with the case) was hiding. He knew going to the hotel on North's orders wasn't like taking on fifteen Nightmares or a gang of bar thugs, but the level of anxiety she'd have to endure could probably match either scenario. Not that Jack knew what anxiety was in those kind of fights – he didn't really feel anything past the adrenaline.

Tooth blinked however, with her (new) dark-eyed stare, and looked up at him as the Christmas lights from the English streets lit up her golden face sporadically.

She then looked down at his hands and the way he weaved them together under his chin thoughtfully before shaking her head.

"No," she tried to stutter bravely. "If you're here, Jack...I-I'll be okay."

Then she turned to look back out the window, but Jack continued to stare.

She thought about the snowflake scar in his palm and the way his smile (teeth all lined up so perfectly) made her feel back in Rome, and he couldn't ignore how his earlier feelings from dancing with her came rising up just to smack him across the heart.

...

_Wales hotel, 3:03 am_

When they arrived the front of the hotel, both were surprised to see how lively the place was for 3am. Normally people were asleep or the parties came to a close but North _had_ said it was a special party – and with it being Christmas, it was to be expected.

The gala was lit up and decked out...and looked like it had already started! Much security scoured the area around the rich and powerful and with it being so late, not many paparazzi had known about it so it was a comfortable secret event.

As the limo came to a complete stop in front of the grand red-carpeted stairs, the ELF PA'd them from the front.

"Your highness," he addressed in a British accent and Tooth and she piqued up at her title. "Remember, you and Jack are your under assumed names for tonight. As well, your handmaiden has not yet arrived so you must walk the floor until one of us informs you of her arrival."

Jack quickly hit the intercom button for her.

"Thank you, sir," she thanked him kindly. He came back a second later.

"You're very welcome. As well, the Chief wanted me to inform you, Jack, that all your original bank records have been retrieved. The funds have been transferred into your fake name and should you want to access them again, the temporary password is ELECTRONICALPHA."

"That's...incredible," the brunette mumbled to himself and Tooth shot him an encouraging smile. _Finally!_ After all this time hiding and stealing, he had actual money he'd earned on his own. Maybe he could see what his earnings were as an field agent were, or when he made his last transactions and figure out what he'd been doing before the GUARDIAN program fucked him over. But while he wanted to, he knew now wasn't the best time and pressed the button instead.

"Tell North _Spasibo_ for me," Jack responded gratefully. "Will do, sir," and the two cut out.

Feeling more invigorated, Jack reached behind him to make sure his retractable staff and rifle were still in place. Toothiana sighed and began to take off her coat.

"Well," she said as she dropped her trenchcoat from her shoulders and replaced it with her pink shawl. "How's my hair?"

Jack blinked as he paused midway to take off his trenchcoat. He lifted his eyebrow at her.

"Uh, fine?"

"Wh...what is _fine?_" she piped and moved up to pat the high ponytail gently. "W-We're about to enter into British high society and all you can say is that my hair is just _fine?!_"

"Well, what do you want me to say?" he rolled his eyes. "It's been the same for several hours. And you should really be worrying about if _Pitch _might show up tonight since he did the last time you went to one of t–"

"Should I have it down?" she butt in as she whirled her head to the window and tried to see her reflection.

"Toothiana!"

"Y-Yeah, you're right. Maybe down is better."

Jack squeezed the bridge of his nose.

"Give me strength," he grumbled. Not that he really believed in any deities; Jack was more of a karma's-gonna-kick-you-in-the-ass-unless-I-do-it-f irst sorta fella.

"Oh shush!" she quipped and with a sad sigh, Tooth decided to pull out her hairband and pins to give her a more plain-Jane look. When all her wavy hair curled around her face, she fluffed and primped it quickly before giving a quick shrug.

"Better?" she said indifferently. But Jack actually frowned slightly and began to take off his coat again.

"I think I liked your hair up better," he said simply and she blushed.

"Y-You did?"

"Yeah, you reminded me of a cockatoo–"

And Tooth slapped him upside the head with a red, angry face. The whole night they'd been basically cozing up to each other in Rome and that's how he'd seen her?!

"Ooh, I'm so embarrassed!" she whined to herself and tried to cover her eyes with one hand.

But after Jack rubbed his head and grumbled to himself, he reached over and pulled her hand from her face. He shot her the world's smallest smile, but it was still there.

"I was kidding. Honest, it actually suits you better."

And she blinked as her face grew warm again.

"O-Oh."

"But don't worry, it's still all right."

But before he let go her hand, like he'd done before when he jumped into the fight with North and the Nightmares, he squeezed it slightly, trying to console her before she was ready to jump back into limelight again.

"Remember...I'm here. So you keep your eyes on the people, and I'll keep my eyes on you."

And she nodded kindly. Jack then sighed, already dreading the uptight night to come.

He took off his overcoat, he opened his door and stepped out. The ELF was already standing beside the limo as Jack went around and opened her door. When her heel stepped out and the rest of her beauty gracefully followed, Jack watched her look up at him with a supportive smile. He grabbed her hand again and pulled her from the limo completely.

"Let's do this," she said as she got out and when she was standing on her own two feet, she slipped her hands into the familiar crook of his toned arm.

"And to think," he whispered as he tightened his grip for her support, "almost eighteen hours ago, you were screaming at me on a motorcycle."

She blushed as he allowed the ELF to bow to her gracefully before the two and moved up the grand stairs.

...

_Inside the Wales hotel, 3:08 am_

The ELFs had switched the hotel's camera recording earlier so as to erase Jack and the princess' appearance at the Christmas eve party.

When the two crossed the marble threshold, Jack noticed several more ELFs dressed in black suits moving about and nodded in confirmation when they passed. When one made direct eye contact with the him, he slipped the brunette a twin set of ice blue promise rings for him and Tooth to wear on their forefingers. Jack nodded back curtly. _'These guys think of everything. Way to go, North.'_

Guiding Toothiana by the hand, he quickly slipped one onto her finger discreetly and shortened his long strides to match hers. She looked down at it curiously but nodded quickly when she saw his identical band to match. With each click of her heel, her leg showed from the slit in the dress and Jack's expression softened to imitate his straight posture and silent footfalls. They looked like the perfect couple moving into the grand hall and after a quick introduction by the doorman, Jack and Tooth bowed. For show, Jack lifted her hand to his mouth and brushed her knuckles with his lips then when he slipped his arm around her waist, they continued forward into the room.

Tooth smirked up at him. Her heart threatened to jump out of her chest.

"So I take it you've been to these sort of things before?"

"Actually no," he quirked a brow. "I'm a covert operative, Toothiana. I blend in and hide, I don't stand out. But I just assumed."

"Oh," she said and pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Well, you're good."

And Tooth was right. Right off the bat, all the European guys who'd been eyeing her the second she appeared and heard her name call, instantly flamed out when they saw their rings glinting in the chandelier's light and Jack's possessive expression cross the room.

"_We'll find a time and place to put that puzzle together. __So stay close__,"_ he whispered and she resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

_"Like I have a choice,"_ she indicated at his hand on her hip. Jack was being all spy-kooky again but she didn't mind it one bit – all she knew was that in a few more minutes, she'd get to see one of her sisters and that was all she could really try to stomach at the moment.

So while they waited, the two swiftly moved around the beautifully lit room, mingling with older folk and having mild conversation and only giving their fake names _Kat and Adrian_ when otherwise asked. Many of the men applauded Jack on his fabricated story of working international commerce, while the women cooed over Tooth's escort and joked about when their wedding would be. It was all so much to keep up with but each time they left a group, Jack would whisper to Tooth and they'd brief each other on what had just been said so they could repeat it across the hall. They didn't stay in one spot for too long, still on edge about their _real_ reason for being at the hotel but the gala seemed to go on for hours.

After some light drinks and quick toasts to several announcements and presentations, Jack's mind began to drift, splitting three-ways as it usually did.

He focused on the gala, whilst the case's strange markings, and also mentally prepared himself for a fight to go down should all of this be an ambush. Every time he saw blue swirls or random brush strokes, he instantly went back to the rectangle pieces in the ELF case in the princess' purse. It also didn't help that every table had number tags, bringing back the 2's and 3's over and over again.

Jack exhaled through his nose sharply.

'_What could the image be?'_ he kept barbing himself. _'Come on, Jack. You can think faster than this!'_

What was worse, the part of his body that was connected to the wind element thanks to his center gene made him feel restless and tingly, always on alert for cold breezes.

Tooth shivered each time she felt his fingers flex or twitch slightly at her hip. As she floated around with her devilishly handsome partner, talked with guests, and eavesdropped on foreign conversations with her Incredibly Advanced Language Comprehension, she also kept going back to the case and the red spot on that one sheet.

'_I know I've seen it before...but __where__?'_

Suddenly, as they walked around a large table ready to start their circle back to the middle of the room, a waiter carrying a plate with condiments stumbled beside them and he nearly knocked into a Parisian diplomat. She jumped slightly and pulled back when some ketchup flew off one of the plates.

"_Sacre bleu, monsieur!" _she laughed lightly in French before she touched the waiter's arm hospitably and switched to English.

"Busy night for a Christmas, non?" And the Welshman chuckled.

"Oui mademoiselle," he said. "But I'm just clumsy too!"

Tooth suddenly froze.

Jack stopped. He looked at her with trepidation.

"Toothiana? What's wrong?"

But she didn't seem to hear him.

* * *

"_Tatiana! *gasp* You idiot!"_

"_Theena, that's rude!"_

"_But Tia, she spilled it all over the table!"_

"_Sorry, I-I'm just clumsy, jeez!"_

"_Haha, BT! Look at what you just did t–"_

"_Ohh, Tooth! I'm so sorry! S-Sir! Can you come back and take another shot for us?!"_

"_Oh no, NO! Haha it's alright, Tiana! He doesn't have to."_

"_But Tooth, it's practically ruined!"_

"_No it's not! It's...perfect. Haha it'll be a perfect memory."_

* * *

Tooth suddenly reached up and gripped his arm.

"Can we find a dark corner now?" she whispered and Jack pulled back slightly to give her an suspicious look.

"You're talking about the case, _right?"_ he asked slowly.

"No shit, Sherlock!"

She then grabbed his hand nervously.

Jack wasn't one to flinch around her anymore having been so used to her kinesthetic nature...and he had grown to accept that he'd been starving for physical contact that _wasn't_ in the form of a punch, roundhouse, or a headlock. But the way she clutched his cold hand made him tense slightly.

He quickly scanned the room for all the exits he memorized and after taking a steady inhale, he narrowed his eyes and tugged her.

"This way," he said under his breath.

...

_Wales Christmas gala, empty hall, 3:34 am_

In the outer halls, still as extravagant as the inside, Toothiana found an empty table and sat down at it while Jack sat across from her. As he gave the hall a vigilant glare, Tooth took out the case and the second she handed it him, he unlocked it. Then the two silently pulled out each rectangle and set them on the table.

Jack set straight to work on his advanced problem solving and began to calculate the integers of each rectangular size. Tooth tried her best to group the rectangles where blue lines and words seemed to form coherent matches and pushed them to the brunette as he twirled them in his fingers and lined them up. Soon, _something_ was showing up the more Jack grouped and lined up the rectangles – an image or...was it a diagram?

Tooth bit her lip and stayed silent, marveling at how quick he really was. She realized then that Jack wasn't only street-smart, athletic, and a skilled driver, but also very mentally strong. It made her a little intimated, and sort of turned on before she wiped that thought immediately from her head. _'Oh my god, Tooth! NO! You two danced, nothing happened. Get over it and focus on your sisters!'_

She tried to distract herself by looking for the rectangular piece that had the red splotch on it. When she found it near Jack's fingers, she reached over tentatively and slid it to her. Her dark brown eyes squinted as she looked at it.

It was growing more and more familiar. And her memories – the laughs, the cries, a hot summer air – came floating back into her head.

'_I wonder...'_ she thought shakily and pushing her hair back, she leaned down and sniffed the rectangular piece of paper.

A strange, faint smell came from the spot, almost too small to miss.

She froze.

"Uh, Toothiana? What's–" but Jack stopped when a scared looked blossomed on her face.

"_...'s'eet'illi..."_ she mumbled shakily.

"What?"

He leaned forward worriedly and she snapped her head up at him. After a moment, she looked back down at the rectangle and all its chicken scratch.

"Y-You never turned one over...did you?" she asked and as he shook his head, she shakily flipped the piece around with her tawny fingers.

_'Please...please...don't be...' _But it was.

The rectangle wasn't just a piece of paper...

It was a photo.

What met her was a shot of her and all her sisters when she'd come home two years earlier. They were all at the beach under a cabana and having lunch.

"That red spot..." she said unsteadily. "Tat spilled sweet Thai chili on it and I told her not to throw it out...b-because it was a memory I'd keep in my photo album."

Jack's eyebrows shot up and he gave her a worried look.

He quickly flipped over all the rectangles that he'd been placing and sure enough, each one was a photograph. There were probably twenty of them from different times and in relatively different styles – but they were all Tooth's and she knew right away they weren't copies.

"Th...th-these are all from my scrapbooks, m-my photo albums back at the palace...in _my bedroom,_" she gasped as she found more and more pictures from her memories.

Jack said nothing, appalled and guilty for looking down at something that didn't publicly belong to him or anyone. They were the princess'_ personal photographs _and he shouldn't be staring at them...but there they were.

He was pissed that he'd never even considered that from the way they felt was like film texture, not actual paper. When he came across an older group shot of Tooth and her 'new sisters' in what was most likely the palace, he glared up at her. Someone had also gone to lengths to draw a red circle around one of the handmaidens but he didn't recognize her as BT – she didn't have a beauty mark under her right eye.

"Why would North have these?" he growled and Tooth shook her head.

"I-I don't know!" she whispered fearfully. "But who went into my room?! And why'd they use my photos...a-as jigsaw puzzles?!"

After they'd confirmed that each rectangle was indeed a piece of her photo, Jack went quickly back to work and flipped them around for the markings to continue putting the image together. He knew Tooth wanted to grab them and run but he tried to console her that for whatever reason they were being used would be on the back once he'd finished aligning them right. The princess said nothing as her heart sat in her throat and her stomach churned on itself, terrible ice tingling all across her goosebumps.

Bit-by-bit, the pictures came together until finally, the thirty-or-so photos came together as one giant image. When they did, Jack's eyes widened and Tooth covered her mouth to hide her silent horror.

In one corner, someone had drawn a large sketch of a young girl who was curled in a fetal position. She didn't have any clothes on but she was drawn modestly and there was nothing inappropriate about the way she held herself. With her legs crossed and hands gripping her ankles, she looked like she was asleep.

She looked like one of Tooth's handmaidens and Tooth gasped.

"T...Ti..."

And she knew.

_Tiana._

The rest of the rectangle was taken up by what looked like a diagram – what they ended up reading sent their blood running cold.

_**BABY TOOTH 03**_

Under it were all these strange stats on Tiana's biology – her pH levels, her blood count, hormone levels, etc. It was all so horrific and Tooth couldn't understand the more she kept reading and following drawn out arrows to strange number counts and chemical subscripts.

And at the bottom next to a recent date was a large script saying, _**LIKENESS: 54%**_

"I don't...Is this Ti's health records?"

'_But how would North know?'_ she argued inwardly. _'Why would he even need to know about Tiana if he's only known me through–'_

Tooth's breath hitched loudly in her throat as Jack glared to other parts of the image.

"Mannerisms," he read cautiously aloud. "Normal growth cycle, average mental clarity, h-heightened senses, sub-psychotic episodes of depression, high observational skills..._sub-psychotic?_"

At that, Tooth slammed her palms on the table, her gold bracelets jingling violently.

"What the _hell_ is this?!" she exclaimed, sharing the same worried look he was. She grabbed the empty case in a blind swipe and clutched it desperately.

"W-Why is it saying all this stuff about Tiana?! How did they get my _pictures?_ And w–"

Toothiana froze when she looked down at the case. Without all the pictures inside, she saw something engraved onto the inside of it.

_**01 – Tatiana, Siamese fireback (X)**__**  
02 – Tia, Redwing  
03 – Tiana, European robin  
04 – Tina, Motmot  
05 – Tuhina, Barn swallow  
**__**06 – Tulia, Andean condor (X)**__**  
07 – Theena, Blue crane  
08 – Tiati, Kiwi**__**  
**_

She dropped the case on the table and Jack, now on high alert, stood up and read the inside of it. He then looked back at the diagram.

"_Baby Tooth..."_ Jack repeated under his breath as he re-read the title.

That's when they both realised.

"The _tooth_ Pitch wanted...it was _this," _Jack said with a dry throat. "This case because–"

"_Tiana's a tooth,"_ she finished. "Th-they _all _are, and I never even knew why until n..."

Jack glared away.

"And that's where they all went into hiding."

Tooth squeezed her eyes shut as wetness started to build in her tear ducts.

"B...B-Baby Tooth was just a nickname I-I came up with when Tatiana first met me. Have...has someone been using it for something else? These cases are holding unnecessary information about my sisters!_"_

"And I think...Pitch has one already," Jack mumbled as his eyes widened. It finally clicked when he saw the shape of the tooth box and remembered the dead ELF's pouch missing something the night he'd been murdered. This was what had been hiding it, what he'd meant to bring to Tooth's prime minister for Mr. Sanderson.

Toothiana's head shot up.

"W..._What?"_ she hissed and Jack bit the inside of his cheek as he frowned. He looked her in the eye.

"That's why your first handmaiden was kidnapped. I know now...North said his ELF was supposed to bring one of these to Minister Bangkot at a conference four weeks ago, for your nanny, but he never made it because I watched a Nightmare ambus–"

A second later, Tooth's chair screeched out from under her and moved away from Jack.

"All this time, growing up, I..." she began and a cold anger started to boil in her blood. "My sisters and I..." She brought a fist to her mouth to stop a choke from coming out.

"I-I don't understand! They're not doctors so why do they need her–their bio stats? I didn't even kn...My prime minister...m-my _nanny?!"_

Jack moved around the table and put out his hands to grab her jittery form but when his cold fingers brushed her shoulders, she looked up.

"Is Mr. Sanderson apart of the GUARDIAN program?" she clipped.

"What–"

"While I was asleep," she interrupted. "You and North talked, didn't you? So _is he?"_

Jack opened his mouth and tried to move again but she pushed his arms away.

"So it's true?!" she spat. "North, Phil, my private tutor...Th-They were all weird agents from the company _you _were a part of. From the _GUARDIAN program."_

She bit out the last part like acid and clutched her hands at her head.

"Wait no, Toothiana," Jack tried to argue quickly. "You don't know what you're saying. North, he...he's a man leading a war against global terrorism and pro–"

"Spying on little girls he has no right to!" she hissed feeling sick. "I-I...I _trusted him! _Him and M-Mr. Sandy–"

She cut out when her breathing got rapid and she quickly tried to busy herself by putting all the photos back into the case.

"N-No one else knew about these," she mumbled darkly, filing each piece away as if they'd also been ripped out of her heart. _"No one_ knew but me, m-my sisters, my prime minister, and my tutor...Oh god, Mr. Bangkot's in on it too _i-isn't he?"_

Jack tried to grab for her hand.

"Toothia–"

She quickly dived around him and after she shut the case, Tooth held it to her chest and spun to face him. His eyes watched as her fury twisted with cold despair and bitterness.

"_They were all from Project GUARDIAN..."_ she mumbled with a light sheen of tears over her brown contacts. _"Just like you were..."_

Her last words drove a spike into Jack's chest.

"T...Toothiana,_ no."_

And her name on his lips made her squeeze her eyes shut because _god forbid_, she knew she couldn't hate him – she never would, not after what they'd been through. But all these questions kept piling and he was at the center, a part of it now, and that terrified her. Toothiana really tried to believe he was good, she _still _did. But–

From the shock, she brought her knuckle to her mouth in frustration and began to back away from the table.

Each step seemed to drive a nail further into Jack's heart as he stood there numb and for once, uncertain. He was desperate to move but...the cold creeping through him came back.

Was she really–

"You could've been involved in whatever this disaster is and just haven't remembered yet!" she exclaimed her heart aching from the sight of his face. She didn't want to say the awful words but they spewed forth with her emotions all a mess. "A-And now thanks to you, North, and whoever else's been spying on my sisters and I, Pitch got to _one_ of them!"

"But Too–"

"Did you not see the scratch marks?!" she cried. All the warmth in her heart for him at the moment – all the memories, the jokes, the hope – were clinging on desperately like candle flame caught in a strong breeze.

"Tatiana an'...a-and Tulia are crossed off! How do I know Tulia's...and th-that he hasn't already found another case? My sisters, _my sisters–_"

_'Don't cry! Princesses d...princesses, they don't...'_

She turned and instead of showing him her emotions, Tooth tried to bolt away from him again.

His eyes widened and he lifted a hand ready to chase her.

"_Toothiana!"_

But he got no response as she kept running.

At the end of the hall, a dark figure blocked her path and Tooth screeched to a halt. An ELF disguised as a bodyguard looked down at her somberly after he gave Jack a suspicious glare.

"Your grace," he mumbled, "your handmaiden and her ELF have arrived."

She blinked up at him, no longer feeling safe around him or any of the men she once called her protectors, but gripped the tooth box tight.

"A...Please take me to her," she said tightly and when Jack approached, she kept her head looking forward.

Her emotionless face made the ice that usually crept around Jack's spirit grow exponentially.

"Toothiana..." Jack started with a hard expression but she completely ignored him and walked forward, silent and still shellshocked.

...

_Wales hotel penthouse, 3:56 am_

The ELF led them to a back lobby, used by private guests. Once there, several more ELFs formed a group behind them and they all headed to the elevators. As they walked, the men surrounded the princess and she bit her lip and wrapped her light-pink shawl around her arms. Jack watched her squeeze her eyes shut and move away from an ELF too close to her and when he was no longer within arm's reach, Tooth popped two sticks of mint gum into her mouth.

He frowned – she was chewing them so tightly, he was certain her beautiful teeth would fall out.

Minutes later, they got to the penthouse suite with a _ding_ to the final floor. The large elevator opened and all nine stepped out silently onto the grand foyer of the penthouse. When the ELFs moved apart for Jack and Tooth, another one already inside came out to greet them.

"Merry Christmas, your highness," he said in a light, British accent and bowed to her gracefully. "You are–"

"Where is she?" she bit out briskly with an impatient frown and Jack turned to look at her worriedly. While she looked beautiful in her full party clothes, her expression was cracked and disturbed and he caught her fist tightening around her clutch purse.

The ELF frowned slightly before he composed himself and nodded.

"This way princess," he said curtly and led them across the foyer and into a larger living room. With each click of Tooth's heels and chomp of her gum, her heart beat wildly – as did Jack's as he moved in closer to her, trying not to care that she didn't trust (or like) him at the moment.

_Click!_

The second they were inside the room and two ELFs shut the door behind them, Tooth instantly broke into a run.

She saw someone she hadn't seen in days and unlike being away for school for months, the sight of her face made the emotion nearly _ten-thousand_ what Tooth normally felt. She let out a choked sob when Tiana met her halfway and nearly collapsed from the familiar contact.

"Ti...Oh my god, _Tiana!"_ she cried as the little Thai girl wrapped her tinier form around Tooth's dress and cried out.

Jack's mouth fell slightly open at the near-identical handmaiden. She was dressed in turquoise and her hair was in a side ponytail, but it was scary – she really looked like Toothiana.

_'How...How are they not related?' _

He almost dared to call her a 'mini-Tooth' but it was too close to the name that had already been given to her in the case and that disturbed him.

"T-Toothie! Ar-are you okay?!" Tiana cried. "Everyo-Ev'ry...W-We thought you were gone!"

"I was kidnapped, Ti! I'm so sorry, I-I'm sorry!"

"So it was true?! T-They said you were hiding like us but I...we..."

The thirteen-year-old then knelt on the floor. Tooth followed to hold her against her and they both eyes squeezed shut, mumbling under their breaths. Jack and the other ELFs in the room looked on silently.

"W-Wait!" Tiana hiccupped and Tooth pulled away.

"What is it?" Tooth whispered, willing to do anything for her younger sister. The teen lifted her crossed hands and did a motion that Toothiana instantly understood.

She nodded weakly and joined her crossed hands with the girl's.

"W-Wings up," Tooth mumbled and the two girls bravely motioned their fingers into two sets of wings between them – a reminder to both that their sisterhood was still strong. When they hands touched, Tiana dropped her hands and quickly clung to Tooth.

"I-I'm scared, Toothie! When you and Baby v-vanished, we all had to...had to–did you know about the h-hidden tun–the tunnels in the palace sanctuary? Behind the mural?"

Tooth froze.

"B...Behind the mural?"

She remembered her dream from the first night she'd been with Jack, back in the motel.

"I...I–"

"A-And I keep hearing things about Nightma'rs...And wh-what did you do to your ha-hair?! AND TU–!...Tu–I..."

"_Shh, shh,"_ the princess shushed her sister and cupped her cheeks.

Tooth was on the verge of crying again. She had never seen her handmaiden, who only ever had to worry about perfecting her English and fixing bedsheets, become so _distraught._ It broke her heart, and when her sisters were distraught, Tooth did what she did best.

"Come here," she whispered and after she ran a hand through Tiana's dark hair, she began to sing.

"_Y-You are my sunshine...My only su-sunshine..._"

And Jack froze, his eyes glued to Tooth's strong expression. She needed to be – especially since Tiana was the most emotional of her eight sisters.

"_You make me happy, wh-when skies are grey..._"

His brown eyes widened suddenly as she wiped away her sister's tears.

"_You'll nev'r know d-dear how much I love you..._" Tiana tried to smile–

"_**So please don't take my sunshine away!...Haha again, Jack! Jack?...JACK!"**_

Only one ELF behind Jack caught Jack's slight jump in his skin. He glared slightly when he watched the skinnier man start to rub his eye. No one else seemed to notice Jack's apparent pain.

"Stay with me, Toothie!" Tiana mumbled. "W-Wait with me until the others arrive!"

"A..." Tooth hesitated just the slightest, thinking briefly about Jack before she pushed his dark form out of her mind, still feeling hurt. She shut her eyes and put her forehead to her younger sister's.

"_No, nong (little sister)...we need to leave, you and I!"_ she whispered. "As long as we're together, nothing ca–"

"Your highness?"

Tooth stopped and looked up at the new voice. An ELF in his red uniform, still flushed from being outside in the cold minutes ago, was leaning down slightly.

"I-I'm the ELF that brought her here," he said in a Greek accent. _"Please,_ I need the case North gave you."

Tooth squinted up at him thoughtfully. But he suddenly jumped away when she gasped.

_"The case...He wants the case!"_

"I...I-I–No, _no!"_ she cried and pulled Tiana closer to her. He raised his eyebrows under his red-pointed hood.

"But pr–"

A second later, someone in the back room came out into the living room.

"Tiana?"

At the sound of the door shutting, Tiana pulled away and looked up behind her.

A man in a black suit she knew very well appeared in the living room.

"Mr. Ty!" Tiana called back grateful to see another familiar face again. The Prime Minister of Punjam Hy Loo, Mr. Ty Bangkot, saw the two girls on the floor and instantly moved across the carpet to them.

"_Toothiana!"_ he cried almost in tears.

"M-Minister Ty?_ You're here?!"_ she blinked behind her pink eyeshadow and he nodded.

"For Ti's extra protection. Thank god you're alright!"

But as Tiana smiled and moved up to stand, everyone was surprised when Tooth sprung up and wrapped an arm around Tiana and moved her sister behind her.

"Toothiana, I–"

"_STAY BACK!" _

A second later, she withdrew her gun from under her dress and aimed it at the floor around his feet.

Tiana screamed.

The other ELFs reacted instantly, lifting their hands cautiously over their guns and Jack looked at them all before he landed his worried gaze on their princess.

"Toothiana?" he said loud and took a step forward.

"Wh–?!" Minister Ty choked out and his face grew pale. "Princess–"

"Don't come closer! Any of you!" Tooth cried and her anger quickly morphed into desperation as she heard voices...her sister's voices from her dreams.

_**"Where am I?...Where am I?!"**_

"You lied to me! All these years, you and Mr. Sandy_ lied _to me!"

Tooth wanted to scream, she wanted to cry, she wanted to vomit and run away all at once. All she could think about was Tiana's sketch and the awful bio stats scratched on all her old photos. But everyone's voices pleading with her to calm down weren't helping.

"Your highness!"

"Careful men, she's armed!"

"Toothiana, put it down!"

"Princess! CALM DOWN!"

"W-Why d-d'you have that, Toothie?" Tiana choked and her high voice made Toothiana grit her teeth in frustration. "Why do you have a gun?!"

_**"Where're my sisters...Wh...Where is Tooth?!"**_

She suddenly remembered Jack's instructions and pulled the gun up tightly against her torso and held it in one hand with a slightly bent arm. His brown eyes widened when he recognized her position.

It was a perfect stance, but he knew her mind wasn't in it and that was dangerous.

"Toothiana!" Jack cried again and lifted a hand to her. She eyed him quickly as her gaze grew blurry.

"NO!" Tiana screamed and grabbed fistfuls of her hair. "This isn't like you, _Phi (older sister)!_ What happened to you?!"

Tooth frowned trying to block out the noise whilst trying to find Tiana's voice. But as her head clouded with fear and she couldn't, her gaze landed on Minister Ty again and her teeth clenched together.

**_"I want to go home...I WANT GO H-HOME!"_**

She clicked her safety off the second he understood. Her oldest bodyguard lifted his hands.

"Princess! No!"

"Toothie, STOP!" Tiana finally screamed. _"__STOP IT!"_

Tooth reacted at the shriek.

Taking the opportunity, Jack swooped in and twisted her wrist down. She cried out painfully and her grip instantly reacted against the trigger. It went off at a nearby wall and exploded a vase. The shards got one ELF in the cheek but Jack was able to pull the rest of the rifle out of her hand.

After he quickly clicked the safety off and put it in his belt, Toothiana choked back a terrified gasp. Jack gripped her arm.

"Oh my god..." she choked and turned the ELF who'd gotten hurt.

Tiana took a step back, looking horrified.

"I...I-I don't know you anymore, Toothie..._Wh-Who are you?"_ the handmaiden whimpered but the princess shook her head as she kept looking between her sister and the bleeding ELF.

"But I didn't m...No, I...Oh my god, I-I'm so sorry! Are you..." Tooth covered her mouth, ashamed at her sudden behaviour.

Jack looked down at her sternly before he surveyed around the room. Several agents composed themselves and went to help their hit comrade as Prime Minister Bangkot stood shaking on his knees. Everyone's mouth was clamped shut, afraid to set her off again and all Toothiana did was gasp in heavy pants, trying to catch her racing heart.

Tiana's ELF guard walked back over to Ty and told him that she had the case but wouldn't give it to him – but Tooth heard and instantly reacted. With a sob, she quickly reached into her purse and pulled it out.

"Is this what you want?!" she spat at the ELF. Everyone in the room jumped but the princess failed to see as she watched the ELF and Minister Ty's face pale in similar comparison.

She widened her eyes.

"So I was right...You knew, y-you knew about this case?" she seethed and shoved it out for nearly everyone to see.

Jack said nothing as he gave the taller, older man a stony look – he didn't know anything about the minister and with the way Tooth had reacted upon first sight of him, he grew wary of his loyalties...even though the man looked like he was genuinely begging her to understand.

"Toothie, please! We–"

"Do you know what's inside it?! This is holding all the things that belonged to me, _my memories_...a-and they've been corrupted!" she exclaimed and Tiana stepped away with a nervous look on her face. But Tooth didn't stop as the anger kept washing over her.

"Why did Nicolas St. North, someone who I've _never _met until tonight, have this, all my pictures?! TELL ME!"

"Tooth..." Tiana tried to speak up timidly but the princess didn't hear her.

The Prime Minister of Punjam Hy Loo looked at the three of them for a long time before he sighed heavily. After he ran a hand through his greying hair, he turned to Tiana's ELF and told him to give them several minutes – this was the part he knew that would one day come, and he was as afraid as the first day he'd been sworn in to this secret.

"Bring the case," he said softly and beckoned the three into the back-living room. "I...I think it's time."

"Come Tooth, _please,"_ Tiana urged and shakily moved forward to grab the princess' hand. Now that the princess' handsome friend had taken away the gun, Tiana wasn't so terrified of her big sister anymore. She tugged on Toothiana's hand and the princess gripped it like a lifeline.

Tooth shot Jack a blank stare and despite how upset he knew she was with him still, he nodded his head and followed beside her protectively.

...

_4:13 am_

The ELFs stayed outside and went about their other duties as Prime Minister Bangkot led them into a smaller, still as elegant sitting room, used for awaiting guests. When he shut the door, Jack's hard expression immediately fell into a calmer one. He crossed his arms.

"Care to start talking?" he snipped and Minister Ty eyed him suspiciously.

"Young man, who are you?" he asked tensely. "Are you the reason my princess almost put a bullet through my head?"

But Toothiana stepped forward.

"No, he's been protecting me," she defended him. "And he's been doing a pretty damn good job since you left me for _Pitch!_"

Ty's mouth fell open and his face grew paler.

"I didn't...I did not leave for you Pitch."

"No, no you didn't," she shook her head vehemently as her eyes grew wet. "B-But thanks to you and whatever this case means, I-I left _Tat_ behind!"

And Tiana gasped as Tooth shut her eyes shamefully.

"I didn't even know she was_ there_ and I...I _left her behind!" _the princess cried. "All because she, _Ti, _a-and_ the rest of them,_ are part of something I didn't know about...that Pitch knew. That _you_ knew!"

"You...You know... but I was sup–"

He tried to continued but the thought was too terrible and he ended up rubbing his eyes with his hands instead, as he did when he was lost.

"M-Minister?" Tiana said nervously. She had never seen the man so lost for words. Minister Ty was always a strong, firm man and the whole time since he'd arrived, he was nothing but careful and hopeful as he made sure she was close to him, as did the kind ELF who led her through the tunnels and tried to make her smile.

Yet Tooth was merciless and clutched Tiana's hand desperately as the sight of their uncle distorted against her will. He looked like a stranger and she felt alone again, like the day her father stopped coming home.

"Where were you after that TV announcement?" she cried shakily. _"Why didn't you come?"_

"But Toothiana!" he cried and dropped his hands to show his bloodshot eyes. He very much wanted to move to her but he knew she was untouchable at the moment.

"W-We sent out royal guards by the hundreds! But Pitch Black...he–"

"And T-Tat was kidnapped," she heaved and took a step forward. "For what _reason_ can you explain for sending all my handmaidens into the ground and for why Mr. Sandy went back to the States?"

"It was for their protection," he exclaimed. _"As much as it was for yours."_

"But why?! They're only little girls, Mr. Bangkot!" she brought her hand to her forehead with the case still clutched in her fingers. As she felt Tiana squeeze her hand, all her memories of them growing up played in her head – the reunions, the trips around the island, the slumber parties...

"_I-It's very nice to meet you, Pr-Princess Toof!...Thank you um, Tia. But you can just call me, Tooth – like these!"  
"You can't catch me, Theena!...Yes, I can!...Oof! Hey, no fair!...HAHA DOG PILE ON THE PRINCESS!–TATIANA!"  
"Tulia, stop it!–No you stop it, Tiana!...Girls!...Eep!...Remember ladies, when she's back, she's in charge!"  
"Oh my gosh, I miss you guys!...Uh bup bup! What do you we do?...Wings up, ladies!...We missed you too!"  
"Make a wish Tiati...Why?...So when I have to leave again, you can look at the stars and think of me...Okay, Toothie..."_

Toothiana shut her eyes.

"Th-they're _not royal_ like me, Mr. Bangkot, t-they were just chosen from the villages...So w-why didn't you just send them _home?!"_

"Toothie..." he said and after some thought, he bravely took a step forward. Tooth didn't move and tried to plant her feet to the ground as he drew near. When he was within arm's reach, he cautiously reached out his hand and took hers, the one holding the case against her forehead.

He grasped it gently and held her for a moment, trying to remind her of their earlier bond before all of this occurred.

Tooth looked up at him with a deep breath.

After a moment, she surrendered herself and let her grip on the case loosen and he pulled it out of her hold. Jack's eyes widened but when he opened his mouth, the Prime Minister moved in and hugged her around the shoulders.

His mouth became a tight line as he watched Tiana also move in to hold her from behind until Tooth weakly lifted her hands to clutch his arms. And between to the two of them, he saw..._this_ was the family she came from, where her love for everything originated, and he couldn't say a word.

Tooth shut her eyes and breathed in his familiar black suit – it smelled of peppermint and a picture of her castle came swimming forward to the front of her mind.

She sighed shakily as her uncle shut his eyes.

"Princess...you have _always _been protected, since the day you were born. It has been your birthright," Minister Ty said slowly and prepared himself for the confession. After he shut his eyes briefly, he pulled away from her and looked her in the eye.

"But the girls...they do not have homes...on the island."

And Tooth delicately rubbed under her eye so as to not smudge her makeup – but the dread had already pooled into her stomach.

"_W-What?"_

"It is why they live with you. They always have because...we are protecting them too."

"B-But...I...I thought they..." she stuttered and shook tried to shake her head. "No, _no_, they _were_ chosen from different famil–"

"No, Toothie. That was a _lie,_ they don't have any families."

Something in Jack's nerves spiked suddenly and his throat grew dry.

"So they're...they're orphans?" Jack mumbled softly and the prime minister closed his eyes at Jack's question.

"No...th'r..." he sighed stressfully and when he opened them, Tooth's brown, pleading eyes resigned him.

He finally confessed what had long been kept from her.

"The girls...they're...they are copies."

Tooth dropped her hands from his arms.

"C-Copies..." she repeated. _"Copies of what?"_

And Minister Ty pulled away and but kept his hands on her shoulders.

"Copies of...of you."

Jack's mind stopped, all his guesses flown out the window.

"W...Wh–"

"Each of your handmaidens...like Tiana," Minister Ty continued, "is a copy of you. She...she was an experiment created by a program once called...Project GUARDIAN."

"The guar...the guardia..."

"It was thirteen years ago an'...a-and it's true. She is a ph's...ph-physical copy matched to you."

Tooth's mouth fell open and Jack felt something like metal twist in his chest from her expression – she looked angry, shocked, sick, alone and horribly terrified.

"N-No..." Tooth tried to laugh weakly, trying to cover up the anxiety with humor like she always did. "You're joking...you're joking!

"No princess," he pressed slowly and guiltily. "I _swear_ on your father's headstone th–"

_"Don't you talk about my father!"_ she choked and the look on her face broke his old and battered heart.

"You're saying sh-she's what a...a _c-clone?!_ Mr. Ty, _you're sick!_ Cloning isn't real, it doesn't exist in the real world it–...S-Stop lying!"

"No, princess I am not!"

"STOP _LYING!"_

But as Tooth tried to come up with powerful arguments and accusations in her head, she felt Tiana slip out of her other hand. She looked down and watched the thirteen-year-old move around her to Minister Bangkot.

"Tiana, _no!_ TIANA! Don't go near h–" But she stopped when she saw the sad look on Tiana's face as she backed away.

"Tiana_, come here!_ Please Ti..._Tiana?_"

Tooth tried again with outstretched hands to the little girl but she shook her head and as Tooth looked at her – as in, _really_ looked at her – she saw it, feeling her chest tighten with a thick, invisible rope.

The handmaiden's eyes, her nose, her hair, her shape...and after all these years, the 'it's-only-a-coincidence' and 'we're-just-lucky-i-guess' went away. Although she was much tinier than Tooth, the princess finally saw it...the likeness that she'd been pretending that wasn't weird for years.

"Y-You knew?...Y..._Y-You ALL knew?!"_

The princess covered her mouth and Tiana nodded her head, her tears threatening to boil over and hurt her dear, older sister more.

"W-We're so sorry, Too–...princess," she mumbled, using Toothiana's title for more emphasis. She wiped big, wet tears from her cheeks as she hiccupped the rest of the words.

"W-We never nev'r wanted t–to keep it fr-from you a-an' they t-told us not t'tell you...bu-but _how could we?_ W-We weren't nor..._*sob*_ n-normal...and each of us w' woke up in str–"

Tooth took a step back and Tiana looked up at her in self-torture.

"W-We're awful, Toothie. _A...Awful! _We-W'...I'm so sorry!"

Toothiana felt like a piece of her had shriveled up – the part Tiana filled with such honesty and love. She tried to cling to it desperately but the sketch of Ti sleeping in a fetal position continued to cloud her mind.

_"T...Tiana..."_

"_W-What the hell?"_ Jack breathed and even he took a tiny step back. "You knew...you _know _about Project GUARDIAN?"

And the prime minister nodded his head solemnly, afraid that North had told them more than he could tell himself.

He sighed and looked down at the case in his hand and squeezed it almost angrily. Tiana put a hand on his arm worriedly.

"I wish..." he mumbled loudly.

"Oh, Toothie I wish you had not been a part of this but you're...y–"

Something like a _crack _went off from one of the windows...and a bullet shot the Prime Minister straight in the head.

Tiana screamed when the blood hit her face.

_"MR. TY!"_ Tooth screamed.

But when she tried to move to Tiana as their beloved uncle crumpled into himself on the carpet, the portion of another window shattered from across the room and a weird sound was heard.

Jack spun quicker than the two and caught the black object bouncing near them on the carpet.

When it stopped near a coffee table, his heart dropped.

"TOOTHIANA!"

He rushed forward and grabbed Tooth around the waist and spun her so that his body became a shield, but as he tried to reach for Tiana next–

The grenade went off in a loud _BANG_ and a gigantic fire exploded.

It engulfed everything in a bright flash of white then a red-orange heat and black smoke followed. The shockwave sent Jack and Tooth off their feet, slamming them front-first into a wall where the beautiful wallpaper was immediately scorched by the flames.

Tooth coughed out the air in her lungs violently and Jack's hold on her instantly fell as his head began to sear in pain. A high-pitched ringing blurred his vision and weakened his dexterity as he went to clutch his head.

It was shellshock and tinnitus all in one since he'd forgotten to put on his earplugs after they changed back in Rome.

_'Argh, h-how could I be so stupid?!'_

Tooth meanwhile gasped sporadically and tried lifting herself off the parts of the wall that weren't hot.

"Ti-'na! TI..._T-TIANA!?"_ she screamed and spun around, squinting her dizzying eyes through the black smoke as it got thicker. There was no sign of her little sister anywhere.

"TIANA!"

Tooth took a few steps forward around Jack and twisted her head, this way and that. She used her ears against the crackling and pops of the fire, but all she heard was the cries of the ELFs in the other room who sounded like they were at war, and the laboured pants of herself and Jack's grunts of pain.

Was it an ambush? An attack by Nightmares?! Neither Jack or Tooth could tell the growing darkness!

"_Aieeeee!"_

Tooth froze for a millisecond before she rushed forward and tried to navigate the impossibly thick smoke. It got hard to breathe as she stepped further in.

"O-Oh god...no! _Please!"_

Tooth lifted the part of her skirt where the slit hid her gun and tried to reach for the rifle – but it wasn't there!

"_Where is..._NO!" Tooth coughed and spun to look for Jack in the dark, suffocating smoke. He had taken her gun before they entered the room!

Lungs burning with ash and charcoal, Tooth wiped her eyes of stinging tears but the more desperate she became, the more oxygen she began to lose.

"WHERE ARE YOU, T!? _A-ANSWER ME!"_

Pitch's arch-level Nightmare circled the cloud cover in his gas mask, yellow goggles set to block out the heat and light as he searched the smoke for the princess. When he came across a girl's form in a dress, he swooped in and grabbed her.

"_I-I'm–NO! HELP! T–Mfhmm! MFHMM!"_

There was alot of fighting and scuffling heard and fire crackling from split furniture around the two bodies but by the time Tooth got to the spot where the sounds had come from, a shred of Tiana's dress was left burning on the floor and she was nowhere to be seen.

Along with the case and all of Tiana's information in it.

And Tooth screamed.

_"TIANAA!"_

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "Vesper's Theme" and "Death of Vesper" (007: Casino Royale) – David Arnold **You didn't think I'd miss a chance to throw in two beautiful James Bond tracks did you?**


	21. The First Battle of Belief

**I forgot to thank kshep.n7 for always helping me with my Thai – thanks you're the best! Thanx to all you guys really who've been helping me with my language proficiency. Haha and Wafflez, are you psychic? Because this track was planned from day one and you totally called it. Haha and finally thanx always for all your responses guys! Now this chapter was a tough cookie. I had to study certain actors at their worst and certain characters at their best but it was so much fun. (: Get ready.**

* * *

"**You may have my number. You can take my name. But you'll never have my heart."**

* * *

_Iiiiiiiiiiiinnnng..._

"_na!...I'ana!"_

_Wales penthouse, 4:44 am_

His chest was in pain and he could barely see through his tinnitus, but Jack rushed forward and grabbed Tooth from behind.

His heart stopped when he lost sight of her in the smoke but he trusted his senses and shot forward.

"NO! HELP!" she screamed but he grabbed her other wrist.

"No, it's me!"

"J-Jack?!" she coughed violently.

Jack felt her spin in the fumes to face him and she suddenly tried to reach for his belt.

"Give me my–"

"What're you d–"

"SHE'S G–" But Tooth began to cough again and she wheezed out a painful gasp as the smoke inhalation threatened to turn her vision black. Jack caught her forearms when she stumbled forward.

"No!" he cried and looked through the black smoke and hot fire. His chest began to tighten and the more she coughed, the harder it was for him to control his own breathing.

"Bend down!" he barked and she leaned forward, crouching slightly as he guided her to the closest wall in sight. Once there, Jack let go her of her briefly and flexed both of his fingers anxiously.

"Where's the wind?" he muttered desperately striking his pale digits against the dark smoke and clenching his jaw tight. He rubbed a watery eye, biting back the sting under his contacts and growled loudly.

"Where is it?!"

"Ja...Jack!" she cried and tried to reach for the arm of his dark tuxedo but Jack pushed it away gently.

"Stay down!" he barked and pulled off his bowtie and unbuttoned the top of his white dress shirt to breathe easier.

Then, he felt it – a weak, downward torrent of cool air rushing in from the right!

Jack quickly caught it and lifted it up. His skin prickled with energy and with a slight cough he used his center gene and called the wind.

The wind wrapped around his palm like a glove, growing faster and stronger as he shut his eyes. He thought of nothing but protecting Toothiana and where Tiana might be...then he lifted his snapped his fingers to the right.

He felt (more than saw) the north wind move east and as it did, he pulled out both his and Tooth's rifle and shot them in the direction of the wind's path. The bullets shattered the windows and with the force of the wind, the smoke rushed through the open windows and away from the spy and the princess.

The wind inside the room whipped their hair and took the smoke-laced breath from their lungs.

Jack watched through burning eyes and a pounding head as the room became clearer and the air better to breathe. The fire however was still strong and licking all the furniture so they couldn't stay in the waiting room for t–

"_Aahnn!"_

Jack spun.

"Get away from the door!"

He panicked and rushed to her as Tooth ripped her hand away from the red hot doorknob leading back the main living room. It didn't budge, and they both heard the ELFs outside were screaming and moving around loudly.

Toothiana instantly curled her right hand into her chest and squeezed her eyes shut painfully as Jack re-holstering the two guns at his belt and catching her wobbly state...just as a piece of the ceiling above the door began to fall around her. When she'd avoided getting crushed by the drywall, Jack swept his eyes around the room urgently.

"Follow me!" he cried and wrapping his arms around her, Jack pushed Tooth quickly towards a door the smoke and fire didn't touch yet.

When they reached it, he didn't bother testing the doorknob.

Digging his left heel into the carpet behind him, the brunette snapped his other heel out and used the rest of his body to kick the door open near the door lock. It tore open with a powerful _snap_ and after looking through quickly, he guided Tooth into the large washroom.

"W-Wait!" she shouted when she realized Jack wasn't following her in but he held up a hand.

"Hang on!"

Jack took out his bo-staff and after extending it, he violently whipped it against the floor-length window beside the washroom and kicked the glass away. Jack guided the wind path through it and rolled into the washroom the second the smoke rolled past him and out the open excess.

"Oof!"

He apologized quickly before getting up to slam the door shut.

Jack then rushed to the other end of the washroom wall and It was still cold in the washroom and as Tooth struggled to push herself up, Jack moved across the tiles to the washroom's windows. As he did, Tooth struggled to get up, she swallowed her wad of gum still in her mouth and clenched her jaw as sweat trickled down her neck.

Thankfully, the washroom was built of cold marble and there was still running water. Tooth used to cool her burning hand as he went to the last of the floor-length windows and shot three bullets into the glass before swinging his staff into it. When it shattered it completely, a powerful gust of high wind from the hotel's height rushed in and around them and sucked the rest of the smoke from the room.

A frigid blast of fresh air encompassed them instantly. When it died down, it was quiet enough for there to be silence.

Jack stepped boldly to the edge and leaned out over the broken window. The wind sent his chocolate bangs up into a frenzy but as he scanned the English streets below, he didn't see any sign of activity.

He glared and narrowed his sight more acutely.

"_Dammit,"_ he growled and punched the wall beside him. "They knew we were here. All of us!"

When Jack was sure that the two of them could breathe again, he sighed and ran both hands into his hair. He coughed one more time before he moved to Princess Toothiana.

"Come on," he urged and walked back to her quickly. "I think I pushed all the smoke out back there so we should leave now befo–"

But Tooth didn't respond and kept rubbing her burning hand under the ice cold water of the sink.

Jack's eyebrows shot up and he moved closer to her, hearing her constant mumbling.

"Toothiana?"

"...I-I...and they...b-but it _can't._..and Ti-_Tiana_..."

Jack reached out and touched her fingers.

"Toothiana, stop!"

"W-Why, Tiana?_ M-My sister, I..._"

"You can stop now! STOP!" he shouted and shut the tap but when he went to reach for her wrist–

* * *

_Toothie, STOP! STOP IT!_

* * *

"GET AWAY FROM ME!"

Jack jerked away slightly as she screamed and cringed at his cold fingertips. But Jack's eyebrows shot up and he tried again.

"Toothiana!" But everywhere his fingers touched, left horrible despair trailing across her skin.

"No, let me go!"

"But we need to g_–_"

"L...LET ME _GO!"_

The sound of her anguish stopped him instantly and Jack dropped his hands from where they were trying to grip her arms.

But when he took a step back, his mouth fell open in concern.

"But T_–_"

The second she felt the space between them, Tooth gasped and rushed towards the wall near the sink.

It was all so much, and even though she tried to look around the room for answers to the questions that now plagued her, she couldn't find any.

And she wanted to give up.

Tooth's eyes fell on Jack's tall figure, standing against the broken window. And when she saw North's staff in his scarred hand and her rifle in his other, she pressed her back against the tiles.

Her chest started to hurt and her vision clouded red.

She growled then shot him a cold glare.

"I'm not going back out there unless someone c-can tell me what I just _saw_, what I just _heard!_" she growled then shot him a cold glare.

"Can you explain this all to me?! Hm?!" she mocked but as she shouted, her face twisted in pain. "Well, can you?!"

But Jack was lost for words and she clutched her head.

"CAN YOU?!"

"I...I can't, Toothiana!" Jack cried and threw his hands out but she leaned against the cold tiles and pressed her head against it. "I didn't know!"

"You're _lying!"_

_"I'm NOT!"_

_"YOU ARE! _Just like everyone I ever thought I _knew_!"

"BUT PRINCES_–"_

"NO! Just shut up, please! _PLEASE!_" she screamed at him. "PLE–I...I-I...I can't..._I can't I–"_

Tooth felt her legs give out under her and she cried painfully when all her weight collapsed and she hit the floor. As she brought her legs together weakly, she tried to cover her face from him.

"Toothiana!"

The jingle from Tooth's bracelets blocked out Jack's voice and Tooth pulled her hands away to stare at the gold bands.

With each glint from the moonlight at the broken window, she grew more sick and gritted her teeth. Every heavy piece felt like a hot brand marking her skin.

* * *

_"Thank you so much for everything."_

_And North smiled as he watched her bundle her small form into the coat._

_"It is pleasure of mine. And promise to dear friend."_

* * *

"No!_ N-NO!"_

And through blurry eyes, she angrily pulled off all the gold jewelry and tossed them onto the bathroom floor.

"W-What are doing?!"

"This isn't mine!" she sobbed as she yanked off her arm bands, the choker, the earrings. "All of this, i-it was _never_ mine!"

Every clink the trinkets made on the tiles left a stamp on Jack's heart, watching the princess toss down everything like they'd been choking her all her life. All at once, everything she wore save for her father's chain was thrown away until finally, she yanked off the promise ring, flinging it against the wall.

"It was all for show! J...J-Just like _me!_"

"Toothiana, calm down. Please!"

"And Ba-Baby Tooth...0-03..._Three!_ Why three!? _WHY!_"

Jack rushed forward and knelt in front of her.

He wanted to touch her, but knew every time he did, the further she'd push him away – but that didn't mean they weren't twitching beyond his control. He frowned desperately as he watched her eyes rove around the tiny washroom and go straight through him, seeing horrors that only she could see.

"I-Is that why they sent me away for eight months? S-So...they could plan all this without me? A-And steal my photos?" she cried and she desperately went for her father's chain under her dress and squeezed the tiny feathers between her fists. "All this time I thought...I thought–"

* * *

_"Where were you after that TV announcement?...Why didn't you come?!"_

* * *

Jack's heart piqued with fear the more she kept whispering to herself.

"How could they...H-How _could_ they?!" Tooth heaved and her jewel-colored eyes widened when she suddenly .

* * *

_"But who went into my room?! And why'd they use my photos...a-as jigsaw puzzles?!"_

* * *

"Why them...why _me?!"_ she choked and felt her fingernails draw blood from her burning hand, gazing up at Jack.

* * *

_"Well then keep it in your memory. Your most precious ones are, right?"_

* * *

And before he could say anything, Tooth covered her eyes with her two hands (not caring that blood smeared her forehead) and began to sob heavily.

For the first time in a long time, Toothiana couldn't stop crying and the tears rolled down her face with each weep.

"I...I-I..._*sob* O-Oh my god!"_

Tooth's body wracked dangerously with each cry until she had to hold her stomach but she couldn't stop herself.

_"I can't!...I-I can't!"_

There was a deep cut in her chest that the sobs seemed to rise up from and every time she took a breath, the pain kept reminding her of how terrible she felt until it was impossible for her to close her mouth.

It hung open as she gasped and choked and Jack felt every sting of emotion washing off her. He was almost nonexistent to her as she kept crying, wet tears streaming down her face and dripping to the floor.

"Toothiana!_"_ he shouted. He tried to touch her hands but she flinched and kept them to her stomach, and to her face to block out his eyes.

* * *

_"W-We're awful, Toothie. __A...Awful! _We-W'...I'm so sorry!"

* * *

"Please g-go away!"

"No, stay with me. _Stay with me!_"

"I c...ca'–cn't breathe," She felt like every tear was an actual part of her heart, her dreams, and her self leaking out._ "It hurts!_ It hurts t_–_And I can't r-run anym...I'm tired of–"

"No, you can't be," he argued desperately. "You have to get up, Toothiana. You have to keep going!"

"No, no, no I_ can't_ I–" Tooth choked and painfully bent forward.

"TOOTHIANA!"

_"_No!_ NO! _I don't_...I DON'T__–__"_

Jack finally grabbed her wrists.

"TOOTH!"

She froze...and when her mouth wouldn't close as she choked on a breath, Jack quickly lifted his hands to each side of her face.

"You gotta look at me, Tooth! _Come on!_" he begged and pushed one hand up into her hair. _"Come on, **really **__look at me!"_

But when he saw her eyelids lift just the slightest, he gripped her golden cheek tightly.

"_Tooth!"_

And she opened them wider with a struggling breath. Through glassy eyes, Tooth saw his blurry face and wide eyes.

"N...NO, JA...I'm a...I'm al-a-alone again! B-Because you all...Leave me al'n!..._L-Leave me a–_" she coughed like she was drowning and Jack's eyes went wide with terror. He tried to ignore the sting from the smoke behind his contacts and tried to focus on her face.

"No," he shook his head. "No, Tooth, come on!"

She was at her final straw, and if he didn't get to through to her now...

...he'd lose her.

"I want...I-I want my f–"

Jack immediately shut his eyes and leaned his forehead against hers.

"Count to ten for me!" he said quickly.

"W-Why?"

"Just count to ten!"

"_Why?!_"

"Please Tooth, just do it!"

And her name on his lips again made her look away. She choked angrily and sniffled behind her fist.

"Okay..._O-OKAY!"_ she cried and put a trembling hand to her chest. "O-ONE!" She almost jumped at the erratic thumping under her dress.

She whimpered behind her clenched teeth but Jack pressed his forehead more firmly against hers.

"Don't stop, Tooth. _Don't stop!_"

"T–...T-TWO! THR...THREE!" she cried under her breath and as she continued to count angrily, Jack moved his hands from her face.

He took off his tux and threw the coat over her shaking shoulders and guided her towards him.

"F-FOUR!"

When he was sitting up against blue-moonlit wall, Jack pulled Tooth into him and wrapped his arms around her.

"_F-FIVE_...SI...Si-s'x..."

He pulled her close to his chest for warmth from the high winds of the broken window but said nothing as she cried bitterly between each number. With every count, the room became less red and her breathing became easier.

"Sev'n...Ei-Eight..." Tooth opened her eyes wide when she realized where she was and her lip quivered.

Jack said nothing but gripped her tightly until she reached the end of the count. He had never done so for anyone, or at least, he couldn't remember.

"Nin-Nine..." she mumbled as the shaking began to start again.

"Te..._ten_."

She stopped.

A long, heavy silence followed.

Tooth desperately tried to open her mouth for more words.

When she realized why he'd done that, she squeezed her violet-pink eyes shut and felt her tears silently slip out...but she didn't lash out. Instead, she gripped him tighter while her entire body continued to shake.

Jack leaned his chin down atop her cocoa hair and gold highlights and bent his form more over her smaller self to the shield against the smoke that still floated high up to the ceiling. He cocooned her tremors and absorbed them when a choke peeked out again and when she angrily clenched her fists into Jack's tuxedo, he pressed his lips to her hair and looked out the window despondently.

"Jack, y..." Tooth whispered in shock. "_You said my_..."

But a brief flash of his almost-kiss on her lips flashed before his eyes and Jack shut his eyes tightly.

"What makes you happy?" he suddenly muttered into her hair.

"W-What?"

"What makes you _happy?_" he repeated more firmly. "Come on, tell me...It can be anything."

Anything to distract her, to pull her back, to catch her from falling.

Tooth bit her lip and looked up at his jaw before she looked down at his arms again.

"M...My people," she mumbled and swallowed a lump in her throat as her eyes tried to grow wet again. "M-My island an'...the smell of r-rain...p...passing my midterms..."

And when she chuckled pathetically to herself, he took in a hopeful breath of air. He rubbed her arms for warmth, even though it was sorta useless since his hands were always so cold.

"Keep going," he exhaled softly and let the warm puff flutter her short strands and shiver down his lungs. "What else do you like?"

"B-Birds...rainbow socks...tha-that little dot under BT's eye–" and she sighed heavily. "I like...h-how uncle Tanvir taps his head wh-when he's thinking, an-and staying up w'th m-my laptop...and when Tia and T-Tiati play double dutch...I love h-how Mr. Sanderson puffs his-s cheeks when he catches me st...stealing food...and how M...M-Minister Ty always wipes his suit e-even when it's not dirty and I...I-I..."

She shut her eyes.

"I like my life._..A-And I love my family_."

And a warmth that she thought was gone forever suddenly fluttered back into her chest and made her choke up.

"Jack?..._J-Jack_."

"You're gonna be alright, okay?" he whispered urgently over the sound his frantic heartbeat. "You're...You're gonna be fine."

Tooth hiccuped quietly and covered her mouth to stop the sound.

"Y...You sure?"

When the wind picked up, he frowned and dismissed it before he continued to look out the window.

"You just have to believe in me," he mumbled and creased his forehead worriedly as he listened for any sounds in the main room but it was still silent after the explosion.

"You have to."

And as Tooth stared into his white dress shirt, soaked from her tears, she wiped her eyes with her knuckle. She heard the brokenness in his tone and suddenly remembered his face down in the lobby when she'd screamed at him.

_'He didn't know...H-He didn't know.'_

"I...b...I believe you," she whispered and when she dropped her face into the crook of his neck, Jack didn't protest. When he enveloped her fully and frowned out the window, the two of them tried to blink out the wind and shadows that silhouetted on their faces.

"I'm sorry..." she muttered when she realized how much of a mess she became.

"Don't apologize, Tooth," he mumbled loudly and pressed his cheek to her hair. "Just _keep fighting._"

She suddenly imagined how scared Tiana must be and how she could do nothing to stop it–

"_**Get her in the car!"**_

_**The air was cold and the ground was hard.**_

"_**Mfhffm!"**_

"_**GET HER IN NOW!"**_

"_**Move, MOVE!"**_

"_**Mmmm!"**_

_**A sound like a van door sliding shut was heard–**_

"I'll fight," she repeated softly to herself and shut her eyes. "I'll fight 'till I break. 'T-Till I'm _broken_."

And Jack clenched his jaw.

* * *

_And the prime minister nodded his head solemnly, afraid that North had told them more than he could tell himself._

_He sighed and looked down at the case in his hand and squeezed it almost angrily._

* * *

"And that wasn't fake."

And Tooth blinked.

"What?"

"What I saw back there," he tread through carefully, but by the way Tooth stiffened he knew she knew. "Minister Ty, North..."

He watched as she pulled away and wiped her eyes. Tooth then glared out the window, feeling the sting of seeing the tooth box and all her pictures in it return to the forefront of her mind. She tightened her whitening knuckles further into Jack's suit.

"North b-better protect the rest of my sisters...wherever they are," she hiccuped. "Pitch's Nightmare took Tiana but I...I won't let him win. I won't."

She wanted to hate North and Mr. Sandy from the bottom of her heart – and she almost did, minutes ago. But then she remembered the relaxed look on Tiana's face when her ELF guard approached, and how North had given her money and food, how Phil and other officers were so happy to meet her. It was genuine, it had to be, Tooth didn't turn a blind eye to kindness – she felt it.

She sniffled.

"M-Minister Ty said that we...that we've been protected since b...birth, so I can't be so...so..."

Jack sighed out through his nose.

"Yeah," he agreed, "and we still need to figure why Pitch wants them, wanted you."

"H-He could be here...in Wales," she whispered nervously but Jack narrowed his eyes.

"He sends out his men, Tooth," he argued. "But that's a risk I'm willing to take too. The world is his playground, but Europe is his home."

A another heavy silence followed as both let the weight of their worlds sink on them until Jack broke his hold around her and she moved to fix herself in front of him.

And as she wiped her eyes, remembering the sink beside her, Jack looked at her, feeling that same energy, that deep bass of power that hummed between them back in the alley, come rushing back.

"Don't worry, Tooth," he said deeply and she stopped wiping her cheeks to stare.

"We'll find out about your past."

Tooth's lips stretched into a smile. "And _yours_, Jack."

And while it was a sad one, Jack didn't realise how much he'd been starving to see it back on her face. She looked down nervously and he felt her lift her hand over his.

But just before she got to him, he surprised her...and he grabbed hers instead. Tooth's eyes widened as she watched him gently press his scarred palm to her bleeding one. He had such a focus as his eyes squinted down to catch her skin in the light and despite her aching heart, Toothiana smiled again.

With a breath of conviction, she gently intertwined their fingers. Jack didn't shy away.

The two then did nothing and simply stared at the way their skin played against each other – a warm, golden brown with no flaws, and a smooth white so pale that the veins were visible beneath. They were poles apart and yet as they shut their eyes, feeling her tiny, warm hand slip like a glove into his large, colder one...

...Tooth remembered jumping through windows and being caught, and ears that turned red when she got too close, and Jack thought of teal dresses running away from him more times than he could count, and lips that turned up every time he did something right...

And they'd never felt stronger.

"But where do we start looking?" she finally mumbled when she opened her cerise-colored eyes again.

"I think North North told me. _The place where it all began,_" he answered and opened his brown ones. "...I need to both go back to the States."

Tooth bent forward slightly and Jack pressed his forehead to hers again, mixing his light brown bangs solemnly into her dark ones.

"So can you stand?"

Tooth nodded as firmly as she could.

"I can...I-I _need_ to."

And they gave each other a light squeeze.

Neither noticed as they moved to stand how the promise ring on Jack's finger and the one Tooth tossed away began to pulsate brightly – their energy trackers told Nicolas St. North that they were both together and okay.

...

When Jack pulled the washroom door wide open, both their eyebrows went up worriedly.

A thin layer of smoke still drifted throughout the room but had dissipated thanks to Jack's quick thinking – but entire room was still in near ruins. The furniture and decorative had been upturned and destroyed in the shockwave of the explosion, and black soot sprayed across the walls.

Jack moved quickly through the burning debris and Tooth mimicked his steps, making sure to step only where he did. She bit her lip when she crossed the spot where the shred of Tiana's dress had already vanished into a crumple of ash and it made her heart ache.

Jack was right. Sure, she could be mad, feel hurt but this didn't, _couldn't_, change the love she felt for her handmaidens. They were her sisters now more than ever, and while she wanted nothing more than to find them, she needed answers first, the answers that Pitch seemed to have long before she even knew existed.

They were almost near the door that burned her palm when Tooth stopped. She looked to her right and her fingers began to shake again.

As Jack passed the Prime Minister's body, he heard her breath hitch in her throat behind him and he turned to look at her.

"Tooth," he called softly. "You don't have to..."

But her lip quivered.

Solemnly, the princess stepped over several table legs still catching aflame in the. She leaned out over Minister Ty's corpse and exhaled shakily before she knelt down slightly and reached for his bent limbs.

Trembling all over, she sniffled as she straightened out his legs, and laid him properly on his back – nothing but the way he hugged her and his playful eye-rolls clouded her mind as she did so. Then when he was lying straight, she deftly wiped dust off his black suit and shut his eyelids, closing his fearful eyes to an eternal sleep.

Tooth clamped her mouth shut and Jack said nothing for a while before she got back up. He then turned back around to head for the door.

And after Tooth watched him pull out his staff and smash the door in, she heaved softly and spared her uncle one, last look. All she could think now was how she ended up leaving behind one disturbing mystery to follow a new one.

...

_A block from Broad Street, 5:12 am_

The black van slammed its door shut and Tiana banged her knees painfully against a metal grated floor.

She coughed out shakily and tried to pull her head up when someone yanked the black bag from over her head but the shadows were too thick to make out.

When she opened her mouth to scream–

"There were two girls, sir."

"Two?"

"Yes–"

_Bang!_

"Then why didn't you grab _both?"_

The sting of the gunshot, ripped through Tiana's ears and as she cried heavily, tears dripping down her cheeks, she felt a dead weight fall into her lap.

Tiana's eyes finally grew blurry as a gag slipped around lips.

...

_Wales hotel, main lobby, 5:19 am_

_Ding!_

Jack and Tooth stepped out of the elevator and into pandemonium of the lobby.

The hotel was on emergency evacuation from what they could hear past the shouts and Jack had to pull Tooth back slightly when a larger gentleman almost trampled her on his way out.

"Should we follow them?!" Tooth cried and frantically tried to push her royal necklace down into her dress. Jack nodded his head.

"I don't know," he said loudly and tried to scan past the colourful rich people making a break for the exit. After hearing the announcement of a possible bomb threat, they weren't taking chances, and Jack was pissed more than ever that his under six-foot height did nothing to help his current situation.

As he took a step forward around Tooth, someone carrying a plate of their food smacked him across the chest.

"Sorry sir!" a man cried but kept running and Jack shot him a lethal glare but he stopped short and raised an eyebrow him.

The man had a weird mask or something painted over his face.

"Did we miss a masquerade or something? And argh," he growled as he wiped the green paste from his white dress shirt. "I _hate_ avocado!"

"C-Can you focus?!" Tooth yelped and rubbed her eye tiredly. "We ne...W-W need to leave!" She was still stressed out from all the chaos upstairs – not only had all the ELFs mysteriously vanished from the penthouse when Jack broke down the door to the main living room, but now all the people down in the lobby were being warned of a new terror approaching.

Jack gritted his teeth.

"I know, hang on," he snapped back as he began to unbutton his cuffs and began to roll them up like he always did. "Just gimme a–"

"_Princess!"_

Jack and Tooth snapped their heads at the sound of a female voice neither of them recognized.

Amidst the chaos, a curvy waitress with deep red hair came rushing at them through the crowd. She was agile and avoided getting hit until she landed easily in front of them without a strand of wavy hair out of place.

"There you are!" she said calmly over the screams. "Your highness, I–"

"Miss," Jack stepped toward her with a polite, yet impatient smile. "I'm really sorry to put the introductions on hold but–"

Jack stopped suddenly.

When he and Tooth got a good look at her sharp, blue eyes they knew straight away she was too calm under the kind of pressure that seemed to fall on the panicking hotel. She looked down at Tooth through her thick black glasses and discreetly, she point at her nametag.

It read "_Linae, 703" _– and to anyone else, the number attached wouldn't have made sense, but Jack and Tooth had their guesses instantly as she nodded her head.

"Agent Sparks of the MG female ELF division from the States," she answered him curtly and Jack's eyebrows shot up.

"Stationed by North," he said relieved and threw a small smile when she shook his hand courteously.

"Y-You're an ELF?" Tooth sputtered when the taller woman bowed to her gracefully. "I didn't see a girl in North's workshop and I'm...almost relieved to finally see one working in such a crazy–sorry! Erm, lucrative job."

And the redhead flashed a smile, catching onto Toothiana's pride, before she fell serious again.

"Yeah it's a risky business, but I'm under MG, not North. He only assigned me this task before I have to leave," she said briefly and scanned the hall before Jack and Tooth could ask her what or who _MG_ was.

Jack squinted his eyes at her.

"Leave for what?"

"Look around the room," she swept a hand behind her and the two looked around her. They saw the chaos, running, screaming as usual – but then their eyebrows shot up when they realised something.

"Everyone...Th-They're..."

"They're all dressing in blue-green," the female ELF confirmed and shot a look at a group of other redheads handing out colourful coats and dresses for all the guests to change quickly into. But the two also noticed that the guests had blue-green face paint and feathers designed onto their faces.

"We made them all put on bird disguises for the earlier part of the party when they told us about the explosion upstairs. My girls are now calling this part 'emergency colour identification' for the guests...but it's really for you, your highness," she said and then showcased a small envelope for Jack to take. Once it was in his grip, she called over two other redheads. One immediately gave Jack an elegant feathered mask to place over his eyes, and the other expertly painted a quick blue-green-and-yellow feather design across Toothiana's forehead and just below to the bridge of her nose. When she was done in thirty seconds, she centered a long feathered piece between Tooth's pink eyes and bowed gracefully.

Linae dismissed the girls and quickly beckoned them the two to follow her.

"Now hurry! You two need to leave!"

Jack looked back at Tooth and made sure she was holding onto his arm as he let the redhead navigate them through the suddenly earth-toned flock of people. Tooth said nothing and kept a tight grip on Jack as his long strides threatened to make her trip just to keep up. She frowned against all the hysteria.

_'All this...because of me. Again!' _she lamented and felt the despair seep through again though nobody saw it. She bit down hard on her lip and tried hard to push down the smell of the smoke still lingering their clothes.

Once they were near the wide-open front doors, every guest, waiter, cook, escort, and possible ELF/bodyguard was flying through like swarms of bees.

The redhead halted just before they tore through. She grabbed Jack's forearm but didn't flinch at how cold his skin was.

"Blend in with the crowd, they're all heading down Broad Street," she mumbled loudly between the two of them before she looked Jack directly in the line. "Many of the stiff guys' chauffeurs are waiting to pick them up from a roundabout there so when you see it, turn left at an alley three blocks before it."

Jack lifted an eyebrow behind his cover.

"Because?"

"Well where else do you think the Chief would leave your things, _Einstein?"_

"In a nearby alley?" he scoffed at her sassy attitude – really, he got enough of that from one girl and she was almost the death of him. "Are you _kidding_ me?"

"LOOK!" Tooth suddenly cried and pointed between both of them. When Jack turned, an explosion far away on another high-end street lit up the outside the hotel and several of the people screamed and ran out faster.

Agent Sparks and began to tie her hair in a ponytail before she took off her glasses.

"Shit, I have to go!" she grumbled and a second later, she snapped her fingers twice.

Tooth gasped – each time a blinding flash sparked from her glove and until immediately, a dark car with two male ELFs dressed in red uniforms honked her from the bottom steps.

"I'm coming!" she shouted urgently and began to undress out of her waitress getup – she wore a dark green uniform underneath and all Tooth could do was stare in awe. She wondered if that was why Linae's hair was so red, to match the male ELFs so well.

The girl suddenly snapped her fingers back at the other redheads handing out clothes and when they saw the flicker, they all immediately dispersed back to their other, European posts.

"Wait, that's why you're called 'Sparks'?" Tooth couldn't help but ask aloud and a corner of the woman's mouth lifted.

"Wait, are you a–" But the female ELF already turned away from the two of them, un-holstering an automatic from her hip, and pointing it down the road that Jack and Tooth needed to take.

"You better make sure she gets there," she snapped at Jack and he nodded sternly. "Oh and princess!"

Tooth looked up just in time to see a tiny case be thrown her way. When she caught it, she looked down and blinked – it was a small case of pink eyeshadow, her favorite.

She looked down at the ELF who bowed quickly.

"It suited you earlier. Merry Christmas!"

Then the young woman sprinted down the last of the steps and was gone in the car.

A second later–

_BOOM!_

"Oh my god!" Tooth gasped when another explosion much closer to the hotel went off again.

"Hide in the crowd!" Jack barked and she nodded before she slipped her arms into Jack's jacket and placed her new case into the tuxedo's pocket.

After he shoved the envelope into his pants pocket, Jack grabbed her hand and pulled her down the road, blending into the blue-green crowd as he did.

As they kept pushing past the people, Tooth grew more lethargic and kept gasping for air. Her legs buckled and she gritted her teeth to keep up with Jack. He noticed the struggle and looked back at her, handing her back her Taurus rifle as he did.

"You okay?" he shouted and she nodded gratefully as she reholstering her gun at her thigh. She looked through his mask and stared into his wiry, brown irises.

"Do you...Do you know why she and all the ELFs are running off?" she cried back instead but he didn't answer, too afraid of the answer.

"I think I–"

_BANG! BANG!_

A second later, an older woman and a young businessman dressed in blues and greens were shot in the back in front of them and they fell into the sea of screams and pounding feet.

Tooth cried out and tried to look back but Jack threw his arm over her shoulder and bent their heads.

"Don't look back!" he shouted and kept trying to move them forward. They had almost spotted her!

The people screeched and some stopped to turn back at the sounds – but when they did, they were shot point-blank in the foreheads.

"They're N...Ni..." Tooth tried to muster up but she couldn't as his voice seemed to have wrapped around her throat like a cord. Jack threw a quick glare up and behind him through the mask but–

_Bang! Bang!_

Two more shots went off and a scream ahead of them followed. Tooth whimpered loudly and squeezed her eyes shut, feeling her feather in the center threaten to fly off.

"It's Pitch, His men! Th-They're ki'...They're killing them all for me!" she screamed in anguish but it was barely heard over the rest of the terror-filled crowd. "But he can't be here! He can't be–"

"Come on, Tooth!" he urged. "I'm right here beside you, keep moving!"

And she made a sound of agreement in her throat as her guilt and urge to apologize grew with every step and every gunshot she heard being fired at the party guests.

"Oh no!" she bit out and slipped slightly on her heels.

It was horrific as they saw the roundabout in the distance through the sea of teal and emeralds. Everyone from the hotel kept pushing forward thinking they'd find a ride and drive away to safety but the Nightmares–

"NO!" Tooth screamed.

It was an ambush!

Everyone who tried to reach for their cars was being met with a new oncoming wave of Pitch's hitmen.

Like cockroaches, the Nightmares crawled in from the dark, adjacent corners and down from rooftops. They grabbed every person they could find and the two watched as people further ahead were pulled this way and that, being searched in the crowds for the princess.

When one mysteriously appeared on Jack's left and tried to move around him, Jack discreetly ground his foot into the concrete and drove his knee forward to catch him from the side. Then when the underling stumbled, Jack let go of Tooth briefly and wrapped the man's neck in the crook of his elbow. He used his strength to twist his neck around and the two moved quickly around the body as it was immediately swallowed by the moving crowd of party guests.

"He must know you're here since his bastard took Tiana!" Jack growled and that had Toothiana's insides flare up instantly.

She tried to spin and her mouth opened on its own accord.

_"WHERE'S TIA–" _but Jack clamped his hand over it just as they were approaching the alley that the female agent told them to move into.

"Tooth!" Jack cried angrily as Tooth fought against his palm over her lips and he felt her tears drip onto the top of his hand.

Jack's heart was steady as a drum but his fingers were flexing wildly. More of Pitch's men would come, and it would be harder to protect her if the two of them kept stopping.

He growled angrily and before Tooth knew what was happening, his hands were spinning her around the waist and pushing her forward.

"Wait, Jack!"

"Keep going!" he barked and when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye, he turned left.

A security guard from the hotel looked down sternly at the two of them. He had two, teal feathers placed behind his ears...and showed off a red ring on his finger that was flashing faintly when it neared Jack's.

_"ELF 438!"_ he muttered quickly and Jack nodded after a hesitant pause and moved Toothiana to him – he really didn't want to in case this was a trick...but again, his instincts were telling him to let go and trust the man.

"Take her!"

"What?!"

"Yes sir!"

Tooth looked up fearfully at the ELF as he grabbed her bicep and tugged her onward.

"Your highness, I'll take you to the lot!"

"But w–" but she couldn't finish and turned back to Jack, lifting a hand to catch his – but she missed.

"Jack!"

Tooth ended up staring into his brown eyes until the crowd swallowed them both up.

Jack stayed frozen for a second, committing her face and earlier position to memory before he ripped off his mask and dashed right. As he did, an immediate onslaught of cries was heard.

About three Nightmares had dropped down from several store awnings and were ready to charge at the unfortunate, rich guests and dignitaries but Jack narrowed his eyes.

He nimbly weaved sideways and through the crowd. When he spotted a metal pipe lying on the ground near a closed restaurant, he reached down and grabbed it. Timing it right, he twirled it energetically then threw it with a powerful swing.

It hit the leading hitmen in the side of the head and before he could recover, Jack pulled out his silencer and fired one, silent shot into his neck. Not wasting time, he rushed forward and used the wall of the store on his right to perform a quick wall climb before he brought his knee down on the second Nightmare who was still trying to raise his weapon.

"_Garh!"_

Once Jack landed, he turned on the balls of his feet and sprinted down the alleyway that he and Tooth were supposed to use. His skin prickled when he didn't see her or the ELF who had let take her – but he was inwardly glad. There was probably another secret way around and he didn't want all these Nightmares to find her.

...

_5:51 am_

Tooth's eyebrows shot up when she saw three dark shadows swoop down just where she'd been seconds ago. None had seen her...but she couldn't see Jack. When she heard a gunshot go off, she jumped out of her skin.

"J-JACK!"

"No, princess," the ELF called as she struggled to turn her back around. She was trying to stop and reach for something under her dress that he couldn't see. But they didn't have time and he quickly grabbed both her arms and pushed her forward from behind.

"He will be fine, he is not alone!" the ELF tried to reassure. "He's gonna be okay, alright?"

And Tooth shut her mouth at the familiar statement and wiped her eyes.

_You're gonna be okay, alright? You're...You're gonna be fine._

She nodded and bravely picked up speed in her heels.

"O-Okay! Okay, yes, you're right!"

"We must hurry now! We must get you changed again!"

...

_5:53 am_

Jack pounded his shoes against the icy cement and pushed the wind behind him to speed him up. The collar of his white dress shirt billowed in the chilly air but he kept pumping forward, feeling the wind caress his exposed throat and send a surge of energy into his lungs.

As he did, he heard the low grunts and thunderous stomp of the Nightmares' boots behind him, and the screams of the evacuating hotel. But he didn't stop for anything – up ahead, he saw two car lots at the end of the alley, facing either side of a large concrete expanse.

Jack snapped his hand back and after making a quick roll sideways, he turned and faced the oncoming Nightmares and shot the two pursuing him, through their gas masks. One fell dead instantly but the other dodged it and kept going. Jack had to rush in and send a jump spin crescent kick to his chest cavity.

The Nightmare caught his foot around a cord and Jack would've tripped face-first on his landing had he not flipped forward easily with the quick reflexes he had.

Pulling the cord with him, he twisted back around and used it to choke the Nightmare around the neck before he fired another shot into his chest – then he was running again, fingers flexing and teeth clenched tightly.

But as he reached the end of the alley, he watched an ELF's body get flung onto one of the nearby cars. The other man smashed against the windshield, a Nightmare swooped down from the left rooftop and tried to hit Jack with a spiked club he swung on a cord. Jack's subconscious kicked in and he fell instantly, his blood boiling with more energy down his fingertips.

Jack gritted his teeth and maneuvered his body to twist around the new cord as it came back around. Throwing a hand to the snow covered asphalt, Jack spied a long shard of glass from the car and catching it in a swoop, he drove it into the Nightmare's vest. The man's weapon dropped in reaction, but when Jack pulled back away and clenched his hand around his cut, he immediately had to fall into the defensive to block a sudden punch combo.

The shard was still lodged in the vest, but the Nightmare didn't let up until Jack saw an opening. When he did, the brunette didn't hesitate.

Jack jumped up and caught his head between his legs. Tightening his thighs, Jack spun himself into a tight spin and twisted the Nightmare's neck as he rolled back into a stand.

He then rushed forward, intent on facing more Nightmares or spotting the ELFs with Tooth but–

_CRICK!_

"Argh!"

Suddenly Jack's vision was spinning and his entire body was rolling painfully across the concrete. Jack cried out painfully as his head scraped the concrete and his gun slid several feet away under a parked car.

He got curb stomped!

Coming to a stop, he heard the sound of another ELF screaming nearby before a _bang! _went off. The sounds of the hotel evacuees suddenly seemed to die away and a chilling silence seemed to blanket the lot.

Jack tried to find his footing but the second he rubbed his cut cheek, something grabbed him by the throat and hoisted him up. And Jack realized that holding him was a man in his forties, quicker than any cop could chase, smarter than any spy could track, and more disturbed than any criminal he'd ever come across.

_"Caught you."_

Pitch slammed the brunette's head against a nearby concrete wall.

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "Skyfall" – Adele **Tooth's official song for the story**.

***If you read this on Monday, don't worry, the end didn't vanish! Haha the second half has been moved to the next chapter. Why? Reasons are in the next author's note. Sorry if I made you confused! It's just for storyboard layout reasons. Nothing has changed, and Pitch is still waiting for you.**


	22. The Master of Nothing

**Hey guys haha I am so sorry! If you read the last chapter before today, ****you don't have to read or do anything ****okay?**

I'm moving Pitch's appearance (and an _extra_ end scene oooh lol) here because I'm splitting the last chapter in two based on story construction. All last week I was debating that in honor of the villain, he should have his _own_ chapter and I realised that after I chose not to give it to him, it was unfair that he got the back end of the previous one. Pitch deserves a front spotlight so this is just a straighten-out for my own personal storyboard layout**. ****But don't worry, I already finished the next, _real_ update and it'll be up by tmrw or Friday (and I'm excited for that one!) Haha so hang tight and again thanx for always being patient and understanding. (: You guys are awesome.**

* * *

**"Delivered from the blast, the last of a line of lasts, the pale princess of a palace cracked..."**

**"And now the kingdom comes, crashing down undone, **  
**and I am Master of a nothing place, of recoil and grace."**

* * *

Jack's eyes snapped open.

_Pitch._

Pitch pulled his lips back to reveal angry, almost-pointed teeth. As he did, he tightened his glove around Jack's throat as he leaned down.

"Jack Frost. I don't think we've have the pleasure of meeting once before."

Jack couldn't deny it as the man said his name...a terrible cold dripped down into his throat from where the British terrorist's glove touched his neck. But he pushed it down, remembering his training, and turned off the feeling.

He gritted his teeth but Pitch slammed his head against the concrete wall again.

"You know how I found you? Hm?" Pitch asked gently and roughly reached down for Jack's fingers and yanked off the promise ring. He then pulled it up and shoved it in the brunette's face.

"By _this_. This shitty little toy," he spit before he tossed it behind him. "You may have a Santa who builds you toys, but I build weapons, and this sloppy invention sends off a stronger signature than any heat sensor can."

"Y-You–" Jack coughed but Pitch grit his teeth and tightened his grip.

"But hers is still up _in the penthouse!_ So..._where_ is she?"

"Go to _hell_," Jack snapped out viciously and spit on Pitch's suit. The criminal frowned – Jack was the first man in ages to ever look him in the face and not cower away.

And he didn't take to that inattention well.

"My boy, Hell is not big enough. And in this profession, I've learned some statements are better shown by my own hand than by my own men."

And Jack watched as the ashen-skinned executioner pulled out his weapon with his left glove. Pitch's new weapon extended into a long stave with a curved blade at the end and he twirled it in his left hand before he violently thrust the back end of the weapon to the wall, straight for Jack's head!

But Jack shut his eyes and lifted his knees.

With a powerful cry, Jack snapped his hands out and pushed off the wall.

_Fwoom!_

A violent burst of wind deflected Pitch's line of trajectory and drove the stave into the wall just above Jack's ear. It caught a piece of his hair and he cried out angrily but Jack didn't stop, thinking of nothing but his full contact assault training.

Jack held his breath and twisted his body to the left, throwing his entire right hand over Pitch's larger, greying one as it was still around his throat. He locked wrapped his fingers underneath the terrorist's palm as best as he could then pushed his thumb into transverse curve between his thumb and forefinger. When it locked and he sent a rush of wind behind Pitch, it caused the man to stumble just the tiniest but it was enough for Jack.

He moved the hand slightly down his chest – then, he whipped the whole arm across him to the right!

Pitch bent forward slightly with a wild look in his eye as his arm was pulled straight across and Jack raised his elbow, ready to deliver a fatal elbow strike to the back of Pitch's elbow. But as he moved in to break it from behind–

A shadow appeared too close to his face and Jack pulled back instinctively.

As he did, Pitch instantly snapped back around and threw a powerful hook at Jack's forehead.

"_H-Haah!" _Jack cried and bent his head painfully.

He saw white hot stars erupt behind his eyelids but before he could recover, Pitch had him against the wall again with a firmer grip around his head. He wrapped his glove around his eyes and Jack couldn't felt an unnatural cold seep into his temples as the darkness engulfed him and threw his senses off.

"What's the matter?" the man whispered. "Scared?"

Jack let out an angry gasp but Pitch still felt a shiver prickle down Jack's pale throat. He said nothing and flung Jack into a car.

Jack hit the side and dented the body of the automobile with the impact. He coughed out violently tried to move back up quickly.

"Y-You son of a–" Jack breathed.

"Am I? Is that what you think? Like everyone else?"

Suddenly on his right, another shadow moved and trusting his feet, Jack rolled to the left.

Pitch moved out of the way but Jack was already coming at him with a cat vault over a car hood and the man barely had enough time to deflect Jack's flying front knee strike.

"Some people become so easily corrupt by the actions of one moment, boy! _You _are no exception."

Jack snarled and when he landed, the two rushed at each other – one with bloodlust, the other with mild fascination.

Jack's breath was the only thing echoing hard off the concrete walls and parked cars as Pitch was silent and controlled.

He met each of Jack's uppercuts with quicker precision than the brunette was used to – but he'd thought Pitch only dealt with industrial espionage and weapon tech!

Jack was surprised, almost anxious – but he didn't show it and kept fighting harder.

Jack weaved sideways when Pitch threw a violent straight punch, his eyes flickering pale gold and his jaw set as an adrenaline long-overdue set into his bones. He began to grin as he watched Jack's face twist the more he couldn't get in a strike and had to spend most of time dodging.

Jack yelled out when he found an opening and grabbed the taller man behind the neck.

He motioned the ebony-haired man's head into a smash at one of the windshields beside him but Pitch twisted out of it like a snake and grabbed Jack over the eyes again, and slammed him against the car instead, sending snow and glass shards flying into his hair. Jack couldn't see, he couldn't fight but Tooth was still in danger, and he'd go under before he let Pitch Black take her!

Pitch suddenly threw Jack to the concrete and pulled out his maniacal stave before Jack had only a second to think.

When it came down, close to his face, Jack flexed out his fingers and guided a strong gust of wind to imbalance Pitch's drive. And when it went into the ground beside his head, Jack then gripped the stationed weapon. Using his upper body strength, Jack cried out and flung his feet up into a powerful crescent kick.

He got Pitch in the shoulder and the older man backed away, dragging his weapon out of the ground.

Jack let go immediately and flipped backwards to create more space, the two stared each other down. Jack breathed hotly through his nostrils, feeling the wind whip violently around his hair but Pitch simply stared at him with a frown.

"You did something, just now," he stated steadily but the raucous look on his face betrayed the calmness in his voice. "I _felt _it."

Jack didn't answer and Pitch's hands wrapped languidly around his weapon.

Jack didn't answer and looked down suddenly when more movement caught his gaze. As he did, he watched as the shadows at Pitch's feet began to elongate themselves.

The lot felt darker, more enclosed, but when he looked at where Pitch had been standing, the man was gone!

Only the shadows and the multiple holes in the wall and ground that tried to impale him were still left in the concrete.

"_What th–"_

As he reached back for his short rod and activated it, Jack rubbed his eyes. His throat felt raw from the hoarse breathing, his skin had red patches where Pitch managed to get in a hit, and his muscles were wound too tightly beyond his control – but he'd managed to survive, and still it sent his adrenaline out of control.

"_Jack Frost. _You've suddenly become more interesting to me than your name and record permits...I'm impressed."

Pitch's voice echoed darkly around the silent lot but Jack didn't say a word and tried to level his pounding heart.

His feet padded the asphalt silently as he spun in tight circles, listening for subtle movement and flickers of shadows. His long staff guided a small strand of wind around him, stirring the air as a black conduit while the blood pounded in his ears. But Jack couldn't develop a proper sweep of the lot, and that made him more on edge.

"So you don't need to be afraid. I'm not gonna hurt you."

The conviction in his voice made Jack's blood boil.

"Do you know how _long_ I've been looking for you?" Jack seethed.

"You have? For me?" Pitch said, sounding actually surprised. "Well I must say, I apologize. To think all this time, a cruel thing like you actually worth of my time, has been searching the shadows for me while you were nothing but a speck on my radar. Almost invisible, really."

"Well, I sorta attest to that, in case you didn't notice, idiot," Jack bit out. "So me, afraid? Heh, I'm not afraid of you."

But Pitch scoffed.

"Very trying, I respect that in a man. But you _are_ afraid of something."

And Jack curled one corner of his lips up as he counted the shadows and wrapped his fingers coolly against the titanium staff.

"You think so, huh?" he drawled coldly and imagined wrapping his staff around Pitch's lanky neck as a show prize.

"You heroes are all the same," the ill-mannered Pitch sneered and it echoed across the lot. As it did, several of the shadows around Jack's feet danced wildly. On impulse he jumped away and even smacked one, thinking it was the terrorist's foot. It was pathetic.

"Argh! Come out of the shadows and_ fight me_, Black!"

"So what? You can save the day and run off with the princess?" Pitch mocked. "Typical, my boy, _typical._"

And a shadow of Pitch against the wall caused Jack to snap his head around.

"And I know, boy. Believe me, I know! I once tried playing the hero."

And Jack felt his head spin when another mysterious blow hit him from behind.

"Argh, then w-why'd you stop?" Jack grit his teeth. "Not enough fangirls?"

"You live for the rush, the adrenaline in the moment...but where's your sense of completion? Save the girl, the people, and then what? Disappear like the wind?"

Then Pitch suddenly appeared by a parked car with his arms behind his back. He was deathly still as his long coat blew gracefully in the wind but he reminded Jack of a ghost, the silhouette of a man not really all there but still watching those with sharp eyes.

"Is that what you really want, Jack? To save the day and then have everyone forget about you, after you vanish?"

He made a _tsk tsk_ sound with his lips and frowned.

"If you do, you'll break her heart."

"You leave her _alone!_" Jack seethed and gritted his teeth and rushed forward. But another flicker of a shadow threw him off and when he blinked, Pitch wasn't standing near the car anymore.

He had to give Jack credit, he suddenly felt more invested in the princess' mysterious bodyguard than he previously thought. This skinny brunette who seemed to evade all his men on just his own wits, not to mention the kill ratio he carried, and the police record...and still here he was, finally seeing him face to face and the man wouldn't let up.

But Pitch was ruthless – he saw that at the mere mention of the word 'heart', Jack's eyes betrayed his stony expression – and so he wondered, as was his specialty, just how much the man could take?

"Me? Leave her alone?" And Pitch actually laughed. "My boy, _you're_ the one who should be leaving her alone. I haven't even touched her."

"No, but you're planning to and that's all I need to know," Jack barked and he then quickly pressed the button on the staff and watched it extend at the end into a Sheppard's hook. He held it tightly in both hands and leveled it easily at Pitch's face as his fingers stroked together behind his back – he always did when he began reading his victims, but Jack didn't notice with his head so wrapped around stopping the criminal.

"Despite what evil I've done to take my life, I'm not letting you take hers," Jack threatened. "So don't you _dare_ touch her."

"Ah, so that's what this is. _Redemption._ All this to atone for past guilt you feel because you have nothing left to lose, how marvelous...But my boy, it only accounts for anything if you _do_ have something to lose."

"I _don't_."

"Oh you think so?"

And the older man rubbed his head mockingly.

"Trust me boy," Pitch jeered, "just by your stance, that twitch on your mouth, and the curve of your fingers, I know more about you in ten seconds than dear Thia ever could in four days...You're afraid of losing something. You're afraid, period."

And Jack blinked when a flicker of shadow past his line of vision and Pitch vanished again, carrying his mind games and illusion with horrific grace.

* * *

_"I c...ca'–cn't breathe, Jack. It hurts! It hurts t–And I can't r-run anym...I'm tired of–"_

* * *

He narrowed his eyes to slits.

"A matryr has nothing, _feels _nothing, Jack," Pitch said. "But you...you've grown tired, feel lost, and you're afraid that you'll be left alone."

_"Stop hiding Pitch,"_ Jack breathed and dragged in a long breath of cold air before he blew it out. He wanted to beat him senseless, smash his skull in, and set Tooth's sisters free.

"Isn't that what all spies fear? After ending up like this?...Being unseen, unable to reach out to anyone...because, heh, god forbid you get a bullet through anyone who gets close to you. And that's not what you'd want...is it, Jack?"

And something like a dime dropping into Jack's stomach.

"Your duty keeps you bound to such terrible, _terrible _things and when they're over, you start to wonder if there's even a piece of you left to save. Any piece left even _worth_ saving."

Jack spun on his heel again to search the lot. He didn't see how his shadow under the lamplights elongated and pulled away from him.

"Why'd you take her sisters?!" Jack snarled but Pitch didn't answer him.

"So you're afraid that if you get her too close, she'll either end up like anyone who came before her...or better, you're afraid she'll leave you once she realises how much of a mess you really are. And isn't that it? You're afraid that she'll leave you."

And when a shadow reappeared on Jack's right, he looked down – it looked like Pitch was holding Toothiana around the throat before it flickered away.

Jack's brown eyes went wide and for the first time, something like fear trickled into his throat. It spread across his chest and fell deep into the pits of his stomach.

"She's a little fire, that one. Always hoping..." and Pitch's voice suddenly grew guttural as he recounted his opinion on her.

"Those tiny, little **teeth** put up _such a fight_ everyday in my hands. And I _suspect_ they learned that from _her! _But then again, that's why you stay with her...because she's always so hopeful, always _believes."_

"G–" But when the memory flashed Jack bit down on his tongue so hard, it started to bleed.

* * *

_"I hope you get your memory back, Jack."_

* * *

But Pitch had already heard him choke and he smiled in the dark.

"And see? I found it. _That's_ what you're really afraid of...Of being all alone again with no one left to believe in you and everything you stand for."

Jack's knuckles turn white with anger as he gripped his staff. He didn't say a word and stood his ground, but the words echoed off his head.

"Well, let me ease your mind about one thing. She won't, not after I've found her and I expose her to everything she's been kept hidden from."

Jack suddenly felt small, standing in under the darkening lamplights and sticking out like a sore thumb in his white dress shirt. And it was supposed to be sunrise in a few hours...yet the sky looked like midnight.

His chest felt tight.

"And after all, you're not like one of her, one of _them_ anymore, the good people left on this world. You're just proverbial waste leeching off the light from its darkest corners."

* * *

_"I'll just leave you," Jack threatened._

_"No!" Tooth whispered. "Wait! I can I...just let me..."_

* * *

He gritted his teeth.

"You don't know who I am."

"True, but I know _what_ you are," he mocked, "and what that'll do to the princess."

But Jack's glare softened and he looked down at his staff.

_"You're wrong."_

And Pitch's eyebrows lifted briefly.

"Wrong?" he scoffed and stroked his fingers again. "I _know_ what'll happen, Jack. That girl will break."

* * *

_"I'll fight. I'll fight 'till I break. 'Till I'm **broken**."_

* * *

"Well then clearly you don't know her," Jack barked and felt his skin prickle with energy. "Because if you did, you'd know that she'll _never_ stop fighting!"

Not waiting for a response, Jack rushed forward and despite the blood his palm that made the grip loose, he swung his staff.

Pitch's eyebrows raised briefly and lifted his stave to parry the blow but the strength of the swung threw him unexpectedly off balance. His breath hitched in his long neck – Jack's hit sent the snow under them flying up around them.

Reacting instantly, Pitch raised his weapon in a long sweep and snapped the back end with his right elbow but Jack twisted around it and made for a right jab.

Pitch deflected it and let out a snarl when Jack used his foot to side flip away. He rushed at him and the two began to hit twist-for-blow. Pitch didn't expecting the sudden determination when he thought he was breaking down Jack's defences, twisted his face. He was taken aback for a moment when Jack almost decapitated him but seeing a small opening in the arch Jack made, Pitch drove his stave forward and got him in the stomach.

Jack coughed out violently and reeled back. He drove his staff in the concrete and used to propel himself back. As he cried out angrily, Pitch's wiry expression vanished instantly and he sent the brunette a final ultimatum.

"Loyalty is very powerful," he said calmly. "But also very_ fickle_...So when she's done with you, you can come to me."

And the statement threw Jack off completely.

_"You're out of your fucking mind,"_ Jack hissed and tightened his grip on his staff. "I'd _rather_ be six feet under, _and god knows I'd take you down with me."_

And Pitch's irises grew alight as he watched Jack's lips pull back in a feral snarl and his eyes swam red with fury.

"But see that _look_ in your face? That cold? That's not bred, that's _born._ Straight from within you, after years and years of being felt alone in the dark...Just. Like. Me."

"We are _NOTHING alike."_

Jack gritted his teeth and he stomped a step forward...but then something pulled his gaze and he ended up catching his reflection in a car window.

When he did, he stopped.

The murderous look on his face almost made him jump out of his own skin, and his eyes instantly widened.

"N..." Jack suddenly thought of Tooth, the first time they met...and how she'd backed into walls and covered her eyes every time he looked her way.

And when the chill dripped into his stomach, he suddenly caught movement and spun around. When he looked, Pitch was standing almost a foot away from him with a smug look on his face – he hadn't seen what Jack saw but the look on his face told him his work was done.

"What did you do?" Jack demanded but Pitch began to step back slowly.

"More to the point, Jack...What did _you_ do? And who are you, _really?_ Because I think I have a clue."

Jack's eyes widened again, and he tried to move forward but her face blurred his vision...and so did all the faces of the men he'd killed over the months.

_"No!"_

"So swear on this, your precious princess and her little copies can't hide in my shadows for long."

_Bang Bang!_

Jack snapped his eyes open at the sound of the gunshots. When he twisted his neck behind him, a group of three ELFs were sprinting down another street toward him.

"There he is! _Jack!"_ one of them cried and they sped up their running.

_"You both have a very Merry Christmas, Jack. I have much work to get back to, but remember..."_

Jack quickly whipped his head back at the smashed cars and panted lightly.

_"...you can't hide from a Nightmare."_

But Pitch was gone, and so was all the dark.

The lot looked considerably brighter and that was when Jack realized...Pitch brought those shadows with them.

...

Jack's eyes widened.

He moved to break into a run but–

"Jack! No, stop! We have the princess!"

His boot stuck in the ground at the last second. Jack spun around at the mention of Toothiana.

"Where is she?" he demanded. He felt like his heart would burst in his chest from all the adrenaline.

"At the safe spot now," another answered in a British accent. "So come on! Let's get you to her!"

But the brunette didn't immediately reply back. He gazed disturbingly around the parking lot and took in the damage both he and Pitch managed to create.

The totalled cars, the cracks in the concrete, his blood smearing across the windshields he shattered, the windswept streaks of dirt and snow...All this dark and cold made his heart feel like something icy had wrapped it.

"Jack come on! Besides you shouldn't fight him alone!"

His blood boiled with cold fury.

A part of Jack, (the old Jack), wanted to argue, to tell to them to shut the hell up, and ditch them. They weren't trained like he was – he was above average espionage training, an elite operative, and he knew the ten-second head start Pitch had wouldn't be too hard to track.

He could've easily started running and gone after the terrorist. And wasn't he doing just fine a couple of seconds ago, _already_ alone with him?

But then he saw a flash of pink.

_"Jack!" she cried when the ELF pulled her away. She missed catching his hand and the crowd swallowed her up._

His mouth instantly grew dry and his fingers shook.

Pitch was right there, _right there_. He saw the hole in the concrete where his stave tried to impale him!

But he also saw feathers, her warm cheeks, and the number ten.

And that voice. '_...when she's done with you, **you can come to me**.'_

He squeezed his eyes shut.

The ELFs watched his tempest of emotions dance across his face. When he ran his bloodied hand shakily through his hair, an ELF stepped forward worriedly.

"Jack..."

The brunette paused for a moment. He eyed the ice and the black hole one more time before he lifted his head. He glared softly and mumbled urgently.

"Okay. Take me to her."

But they didn't see his fingers shake in the wind.

Maybe he was afraid he had something to lose.

Maybe Pitch was right.

...

_Secret outdoor parking lot, 6:29 am_

"Jack?!" Tooth cried happily. "O-Oh my god!"

Her fists stopped clenching into her dress the minute she saw him. Jack turned the corner with three other ELFs around him, but they didn't really pay attention to her as they were all on their bluetooths. They were getting messages from their other comrades and being told about the battles going on with the Nightmares across the city.

But Jack didn't have a Bluetooth and he heard Tooth's voice clear as crystal.

The brunette pulled his head up slowly and tried to ignore the aching in his neck and behind his head. He saw Toothiana standing at one of many parked cars. The ELF who took her was nearby.

Jack watched her suddenly stand on her tiptoes then plop back down, like she always did when he was anxious.

And she was, because Tooth frowned when she got a good look at him.

His white dress shirt was disheveled and smeared with dirt, snow and blood. She prayed it wasn't his own but then she saw his right hand dripping with blood. And when she kept looking, she also noticed the deep scrape on his cheek, the glass shards in his hair, and how one section of his head suddenly looked off.

Tooth felt her insides coil painfully again.

"Wh..." she started and took a step forward. "What happened to you?!"

Jack frowned.

"I-It's nothing," he lied. "Had to handle more than one Nightmare, that's all."

And yet Jack walked faster to her, so she jogged up in her heels to meet him halfway. When they stopped in front of each other, Toothiana paused for only a moment before she bravely closed the space between them and hugged him.

"You're okay," she muttered into his shirt and wrapped her small body around his.

She didn't give even the smallest crap that her (still) painted face was smearing against the rest of the blood on his shirt and forearms. Jack didn't seem to mind either since he didn't move her away.

But he _did_. He froze instantly and stared down at his own blood rubbing her into cheek. Pitch's face came bubbling up to the back of his mind and he looked out across the parking lot in a numb daze.

The man he'd been trying to hunt for months had him around the neck half and hour ago...and he could still feel the strength of the touch, the smell of his stale breath, and the words he bludgeoned the brunette's mind with.

Not the mention his heart.

Jack felt Toothiana squeeze him tighter and shutter a breath in the cold.

His own hitched.

He almost heard her lungs tremble from exhaustion.

"You need to sleep," he mumbled. He finally realized how many hours she'd been awake for and a dry lump formed guiltily in his throat.

When she nodded resignedly, she mumbled on the last drop of stamina she had.

"I am..._I'm so tired_," she finally admitted into his shirt and weakly, he raised his unbloodied hand and gave her a one-armed hug. His head dropped over hers almost exhaustively too as he continued to look out across the lot.

When one of the ELFs who brought him back walked past the two, Jack caught his gaze and opened his mouth.

**_Where's Pitch?_** he mouthed silently.

The ELF understood immediately. He paused to touch his Bluetooth and listened for a new update before he looked straight at Jack again.

"They just spotted him," he reassured above a whisper so the princess wouldn't hear. "Fifteen of ours are chasing him right now."

"Hm?"

Tooth pulled away limply and looked up at the ELF towering over both of them.

"Wh-Whose chasing who?" she asked worriedly.

"An arch-level Nightmare," the ELF quickly lied. He suddenly touched his earpiece again. "And MI5 just called in agents from the Special Branch to find him too."

Jack knew what MI5 was – the UK's Secret Security;_ Military Intelligence, Section 5_

Tooth knew what a 'Special Branch' was from school – special police involved in counterintelligence that carried out national arrests...she met the Royal Thai Police once who did same thing.

And they both froze at the same time.

_Moscow._

The ELF somehow recognized their silent terror and nodded.

"You two need to leave," he said curtly. "I was there last night in North's workshop."

Jack nodded solemnly and Tooth pulled away from him.

"They can't find out you're here, Jack. You're already wanted in the UK a-and..." She stopped and her eyes turned hard again. "Well, we better leave before he starts posting your picture all over the walls again."

When he nodded, Tooth moved completely away from him and turned. She took a few steps and frowned back up at the empty, hotel in the distance and thought of Prime Minister Bangkot one last time.

He watched her face fall and she sighed through stinging eyes again.

Jack came up behind her and stared up at it too before he placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Now please," she grit out and reached up to clutch his fingers, "get me out of Wales."

And her shaky breath, still laced with her earlier hiccups, was stolen by chilly thread of wind and tossed into the early morning darkness.

...

_7:02 am_

The ELFs let them use their emergency showers in the safe bunker and they came out in their warm, comfortable clothes. Jack also patched himself up in the tiny infirmary and washed out a little of the hair dye to make his hair two-toned.

When they were good to go, the ELFs gave them a send off and Jack silently gunned out of the lot and into the Christmas Eve morning traffic. They were going to Cardiff Airport and a Sleigh Runner would be waiting to fly them up before eight wherever it could.

Tooth fell asleep instantly under the deep purr of their sleek, Nissan GT-R and the orange headlights that flickered past. Jack didn't say one word knowing that all the exhaustion and stress finally caught up to her.

Her feather earrings were back on her ears and when they fluttered in a tiny breeze, he watched her bundle her shivering form tighter into her teal-colored turtleneck and open coat. Her father's chain was hanging over her chest.

As she breathed softly, Jack listened and looked out into the brightening horizon. Sunrise was coming at eight so he had just the perfect moment to watch the light push away the dark. As he waited and drove in silence, he frowned suddenly.

Pitch still plagued his mind and their fight was still fresh in his mind. It made him furious and sick all at once.

He almost had him, almost had _answers_, but then the criminal had to warp his words and...

_Something to lose...Afraid of being left alone?_

Jack narrowed his eyes.

Well, it didn't matter anymore, he couldn't think about it. He chose protecting the princess over running bat-crap-crazy after his ass so now Jack could prepare for the next encounter. And now that he'd seen the man in person, he'd play it right.

Still, it didn't mean Jack wasn't human. His skin still crawled even though he'd washed the grime and blood away.

Pitch Black was a terror and now, Jack had the scars of fear to prove what an effect it had on him. Like everyone else he'd tortured, like Toothiana.

The brunette squeezed the steering wheel and the cut in his hand burned behind the bandages. As he thought about it, Jack flit his gaze to the rearview mirror and stared at his reflection grimly.

He lifted a hand to touch the cut on his cheek, cringing at how the red scrape of color looked shockingly normal against his pale skin. But the cut was healing and it'd be gone in an hour – he never told Tooth but his cuts always seemed to heal quicker than most people's.

He wasn't sure still if it was because it was a spy thing, they'd trained him to control it mentally or whatever but...he knew it wasn't normal. Maybe a center gene enhancement? He'd have to ask North–

Tooth suddenly choked in her sleep. When he looked, a tear rolled her cheek but she calmed down almost immediately. She then fell back into deep sleep.

Jack deeply frowned. He reached over quickly and wiped it off her face before he focused back on the road.

A shuttering exhale left his lips as he gripped the wheel harder.

Pitch ruined everything.

And so did Project GUARDIAN.

...

_Cardiff Airport, abandoned runways, 7:48 am_

When the Nissan screeched to a halt on the deserted dirt road, the _Sleigh_ was seen parked in the distance. Jack let out a nervous breath.

He didn't know he had been holding it but he kept fearing a Nightmare, or worse Pitch, would show up out of nowhere.

But the ELFs _did_ say they were pursuing him, and so was MI5...so that had to be good, right?

Jack quickly killed the engine and ripped off his seatbelt. He reached over and gently shook Toothiana awake with his glove.

"Toothiana," he urged softly and she opened her eyes instantly. Jack pointed at the plane through the windshield.

"Come on, we're here!"

"W-We are?" she mumbled breathlessly. "Oh...o-okay."

The sound her husky voice sent Jack's nerves into a frenzy uncharacteristically. He smiled a little to urge her out of the car.

"Yeah, so come on, get out. Just a few more steps."

The princess managed to unbuckle her seatbelt and roll over to the door. But she didn't really get much farther. When she began to look for for the handle slowly, Jack rolled his eyes.

Tooth heard him get out of the car and shut his door. She instantly stopped trying to open it and fell back to sleep. But a second later, it opened on its own and Jack was pulling her arms out.

"Tooooth," he groaned and she gave a breathy chuckle.

"Okay, okay. Sorry."

As she got out and moved to stand, she swayed slightly and gripped the side of the car in support. Tooth sighed tiredly and put her arm against it to use as a pillow. But a second later, she pushed herself up and moved to walk.

"Okay, let's go," she huffed and grabbed his arm to help her walk properly.

A frown set itself deep into her face and her expression still looked haunted under the dark circles of her eyes.

She wasn't herself anymore, not after what Pitch and her family had done, but she was trying. Her six sisters (she refused to _ever _call them by the C-word) were still out there and he knew that since she couldn't get to them, finding out the GUARDIAN program and helping him stop Pitch would be the next best thing.

But Jack frowned sadly.

Tiana was such a sweet little girl, and he remembered the photos...It was all too much for him to believe that everyday, for all her life, while she lived with them and when she went away, this was all a secret kept from her.

Jack wondered how long they'd take to actually tell her, or if they even would.

It was too late now though – one uncle was dead, another lost in the sea of duty, and the little army of girls she helped raised were vanishing one by one.

Yet, she didn't faint, her mind didn't go mad, and she didn't completely shutdown.

_'Only because you screamed in her face not to,' _he retorted to himself.

Jack gripped her tightly.

Yeah, he did. And he was glad she listened because here she was still beside in her relative healthy state - but he worried for how long.

Toothiana kept walking even though every three steps she stumbled and struggled to push her legs forward.

But when she tripped a fourth time, Jack finally scrunched his brows together. He moved in front of her.

Tooth blinked as he suddenly leaned forward and bent slightly to her level. He wanted her to get on his back.

"Get on."

And Tooth, not in her crushing-on-Jack self (or even_ complete self_), mumbled tiredly and hopped on.

He hoisted her up securely and linked his elbows under her knees as her long boots dangled weakly on his sides. She wore new spy pants sent by North and Jack realised the dark, skin-tight material was the same as the female ELFs. He also felt her two gun holsters, strapped to both her thighs as they hid under her short, A-line skirt. Then when he was sure she was leaning against him, he piggy-backed her the rest of the walk down the runway.

The wind blew Tooth's A-line skirt back like a feathery tail. It trailed down quickly from earth green to royal blue and Jack vaguely wondered if she'd ever wear any other colors – but then he decided anything else wouldn't suit her.

Tooth fell asleep instantly and Jack walked in silence again as he stared at the brightening sky. The calm was nice but he knew, like everything in their lives now, it was short-lived.

Every step now needed to be confident, needed to be firm, and they needed to be ready.

For Pitch.

And for her sisters.

It made Jack look back at Toothiana again. She was incredibly light, and still very soft and there was something about the way she pressed into him that felt right and natural.

Jack grew ashamed with himself – he couldn't entertain entertain those thoughts...He could only put it with the other memories in the back of his head.

And he did.

**_Hahaha..._**

Jack blinked behind his dry eyes.

**_Hahahaha!_**

That little girl's voice came back, the one who always yelled his name.

He shut his eyes to moisten them against the cold winds. She sounded like she was right behind him, talking in one of his ears.

**_Hahahaha, Jack! You're-_**

The memory suddenly vanished and Jack finally realised that Tooth was playing with one of his ears.

"Uh...Tooth?" He was almost afraid to ask as one of her hands gently pulled on his earlobe and rubbed the shell of his skin.

But he couldn't deny that flush came back and sped down his skin. That same warm, electrical wave was there when she pulled his ear before with her lips, and every time he put his arms around her waist.

Feeling his muscles unwind on their own accord, Jack felt his hold slacken just a tad and instantly jolted awake to tighten his arms around her legs.

Tooth was half-asleep. Her eyes were barely open while the wind nipped her cheeks and nose. She probably wasn't even registering _it_ or anything. But she opened her mouth anyway.

"I have a new thing that makes me happy," she said with a yawn and Jack quirked a brow curiously after her secured her.

"Oh yeah? What?"

"...The north wind."

He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"Why?"

"Because dummy, when it starts to blow...it means you're coming back."

And Jack stopped walking.

"W–"

"Thanks for not leaving me behind," she mumbled almost sadly and a second later, she slipped into unconsciousness.

Tooth remained asleep for the rest of next 7 hours and 11 minutes trip, and by the time they landed, she felt recharged and Jack's wounds healed over. But while they felt stronger together...they also felt more alone.

Their hearts were still shaken and their minds still were disturbed, and now the entire world was a race they both had to survive...and win.

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "The Beginning is The End is the Beginning" - Smashing Pumpkins **One of Pitch and Jack's stellar official songs.**


	23. When Guardians Go Down Under

**Sorry this was late guys! The weather is really crazy up here in Toronto and I got bad a cold yesterday haha.**

**I don't know how you guys can read such a long, winding thing and come out alive but it means the world to know that my love for this AU is really reflecting on screen and with you guys. (: I'll always keep writing, but it's very sweet to know you're trying to keep up with me haha. I also have no ill feelings if you're pissed at me for spamming your inbox with chapter updates (haha then again, **_**you**_** signed that death wish when you decided to click 'follow' lol). Haha but thanx so much everybody! (anons/flwrs/fvrs/ppl I've grown to know so well :3 I think I'm up to date on all my replies; if not I'm so sorry!) Please read in moderation so you don't hurt yourself haha. I write lots but everything is relevant and plays a part in the future. (:**

* * *

**"What would it take, for things to be quiet, quiet like the snow?"**

* * *

_New York, Buffalo Niagara International Airport, 10:59 am_

The minute Jack and Toothiana got off the plane, skipped past security and entered the airport terminal, they were dressed to impress and ready to hit the road.

Tooth felt better after her long sleep and Jack (who although hadn't sleep since the flight to Russia and could still go on another day without it) was back to his skin-perfect, ass-kicking self. But when she moved in to grip Jack's arm, he looked down at her questionably.

"H...Holy crap."

Her wide eyes (accented by her new pink eyeshadow) drank up the room like she'd landed on a new planet.

He quirked an eyebrow.

"What's wrong with you? You look like you'd never seen this kind of thing before."

But she didn't answer , still feeling jetlagged, kept darting her eyes around like two pink, nervous birds as she stared at everyone wrapped up in their holiday fever. She watched a mom and her sister scream in the distance and run to hug each other, and spotted a man (pushing a mountain of Christmas presents on a trolley) get bumped by someone and watched them fall over. As several people tried to help him, she moved on to a group of college boys singing stupidly together while they waited for their flights to arrive, then quickly spotted an old, Indian couple scurry over to their son and daughter-in-law as they arrived from their flight with the Emirates. Seeing the father lean out to hug his granddaughter made Tooth gulp.

"I..." she started but took a deep breath and tried again. A small smile peeked on her lips. "It's just sorta weird to be here two weeks earlier than I normally would be...I usually come back in January so I've never seen the airport like this!"

Jack eyed her funny.

"You've never seen the airport at Christmas?"

She shook her head.

"Why?" he asked taken aback and Tooth caught herself watching three triplet girls play tag around their family in another spot. Jack watched her smack her lips delicately.

She shot him a look before she tilted her head and smiled bashfully.

"I'm usually back on Punjam when this all happens so I've never spent one Christmas here in the states."

She then turned her eyes back to the masses and her gaze grew large and crestfallen. Jack turned his head back to the crowd too and was about to open his mouth when she sighed, more firmly this time, and huffed with a brave smile.

"Well, there's a first time for everything right?"

And she moved away from him to pull into a stretch. "So let's get this show on the r–"

"Ooooh!"

Toothiana stopped stretching her arms above her head.

When she looked down, she found where the tiny voice was coming from. A little girl with curly, brown hair peeking out from under her red toque was staring up at the princess with such expressively, large eyes.

"Oh, hello there," Princess Thia smiled and the girl instantly brandished a mouth with missing teeth and brave face. Jack thought she was the cutest thing as she started to bounce on her feet but he stood behind Tooth and tilted his head.

"Pretty!" she squeaked, pointing at the princess' hummingbird-feathered necklace and as the older girl bent down to her level, the six-year-old opened a tiny Christmas bag she was carrying and pulled out a pretty, embroidered handkerchief.

"Merry merry Christmas, miss!" she said sweet and proud as she handed Tooth the cloth. A second later, she waved and skipped off around the airport terminal to give more random people gifts before Toothiana could raise her hand and talk to her.

"Thank–...yousweetiemerrychristmastoo," she mumbling off the last words. With a sad blink at the girl vanishing back to her family, Tooth looked down at the red square and rubbed a thumb over it.

Jack leaned over slightly. He eyed the cloth, the girl, and the feather hairtie in her high ponytail.

"Why do kids keep leaving you with gifts? You got some kind of pact with them or something?"

When she pulled up, she chuckled and shot him a secret smile that seemed to erase the last of the night's horrors from her features.

"M-Maybe..."

But despite Jack's blank look, he inwardly exhaled a breath big enough to fill a hot air balloon. Her smile still survived, was still there, after everything she went through hours ago – and she'd never know how grateful he was to see it, regardless of how timid it still was.

She reminded her so much of Tiati with her big eyes and confidence to meet people and she looked down at the handkerchief more fondly.

Tooth gazed at the holly design on it one more time before she squeezed it tenderly in her right glove. She'd found it the back on the ELF plane (a female ELF must have left one of the pairs behind) and Tooth decided it was warm and stylish.

Jack saw her smile grow and he decided it'd be too much for one moment and turned back to survey the airport, Christmas crowd.

"So...you're okay, then?"

Tooth shoved the cloth in her coat pocket and she sighed under her breath.

"Oh yeah, oh yeah," she said trying to sound cool (but failing) and looked back at him encouragingly. "I'm perfectly fine. But I wouldn't mind buying another pack of g–"

_THWACK!_

"Ah!"

Jack's eyes widened.

Tooth slapped her hand to her eyebrow, wondering what the heck just happened.

"Ow...ow...owowow!"

"Oh my gosh, lady! I am SO sor–"

"Tommy! I told you not to hold your snowboard like that!" the thirteen-year-old's mother screeched from Tooth's right. "Now apologize! And give me that or put it on the cart!"

"I AM apologizing, ma!" he argued exasperatedly and looked back at Tooth. When she patted her forehead and he got a good look at her magenta-colored eyes, he paused briefly and gawked.

"A-Again, sorry miss!" he blubbered and blushed under her pretty gaze. Tooth lowered her hand after the worst was over and smiled.

"Aw, it's okay," she forgave him and widened her gaze. "T-That's a really cool snowboard!"

"Y-Yeah?!" he said eagerly and shifted it on his shoulders. "I custom picked it myself! I can't WAIT to ride it up in Whistler!" And when he flit his gaze to Jack, he shot the brunette a lively smile. "Sorry, I'm holding your girlfriend up huh?"

And Jack actually chuckled and bent down a bit. He smiled widely and pointed at it.

"Just avoid The Couloir, alright? That hill almost knocked me out one time."

"Y-You ride too?!"

"Heck yeah," Jack grinned. "Nothing's better than a rush of wind to the face. Just remember to stay centered and keep your knees loose, okay?"

And the boy grinned, really laidback and sociable for his age. "You got that right! Although mom _hates_ when I come in all red and runnynosed!"

"Well that's what you've got a sleeve for," Jack smirked.

"Exactly!"

"Okay _ew_," Tooth teased and they both looked at her before the kid laughed.

"TOMMY WE'RE LEAVING!"

"Okay fiiiiine!" he yelled and turned – but not before he stopped to lower the snowboard so he wouldn't knock Tooth out again. He then smiled back at them.

"Take care of yourself, kid," Jack shot him a warm smile and he returned it.

"Merry Christmas, you two," he piped and moved away after Tooth waved.

When he was gone, she leaned over, still smiling, but she looked slightly disturbed underneath it.

"You ride?"

And Tooth saw him nod out of the corner of her eye while he continued to smile at Tommy. Jack suddenly wished he could just drop everything and go snowboarding in Whistler too.

"And I'm your girlfriend now too, huh?" she teased.

"Only if I suddenly suffered a severe brain injury."

And she bumped violently with her hip as a small grin spread on her face.

"Shut up."

But despite Jack's scowl, he inwardly exhaled a breath big enough to fill a hot air balloon. Her smile still survived...It was still there, after everything she went through hours ago – and she'd never know how grateful he was to see it, regardless of how timid it still was.

They watched Tommy move back to his very loud family and a wave of nostalgia fell over them both. Tooth also recognized the little girl that gave her the handkerchief reappear and join them – she must have been his little sister (which also explained a lot).

Tooth sighed under breath.

"Okay," she gulped as she watched with an aching heart all the other families around them. "What do we do first?"

But Jack didn't answer right away.

When she looked up at him, a frown appeared on his face. He was spacing out in a so-not-Jack way. Tooth immediately scrunched her eyebrows.

Moving in close to him, she whispered so only he could hear.

_"Hey,"_ she nudged him and he blinked twice. He looked down at her like he'd just woken up.

"What?"

"Did you just have another memory flash?" she asked softly but Jack shook his head.

"Is the crowd too much?"

"No, I just..." he stopped to rub his eye tiredly and Tooth caught something in his expression. She frowned sadly.

"Jack, is it okay if I...I mean I understand if you don't want to, I just..." when she stopped to try again, he bit his lip and looked back at the crowd.

"You're asking if I had a life before all this...?"

Tooth shut her mouth. She rubbed her arm and looked out at the crowd again too.

"Y-Yeah."

Jack watched a father scoop up his little girl and swing her around. His forehead creased darkly.

"If I did...it's gone now."

Tooth flit her dark-pink irises his way.

"Don't say it like that," she mumbled.

"But it's true," Jack retorted and ran a hand through his brown locks. "All I ever see are flashes of my days as an operative. Not my past before it."

"Not even a family member?" she wondered. "Or a name? A-A face?"

"..."

Tooth frowned until Jack spoke up again. He tightened his hold on his backpack.

"Hopefully I'll know something by tonight," he promised. "Once we get there."

Tooth's grip on the teal-colored fabric fell away and she looked at the crowd one more time before she nodded firmly. As much as she wanted to find answers to her own questions, she just as badly wanted to find them for him.

And right now, his mattered more.

"So let's go," she said seriously and Jack narrowed his eyes as he looked up at the signs.

"Not yet," he said and they continued to avoid getting spotted under the cameras. "Let's do something first."

...

_Second floor, 10:41 am_

They found an emergency bank teller on the upper floor in a more private corner of the departure lobby. The spy and the princess sat in two chairs across from the man (who was generally happy to be off after today for the holiday) and when he asked Jack for his password, the brunette felt Tooth place her hand on his knee under the counter for support.

She saw the way his muscles tensed more than normal. That's when she realized that up until today, Jack didn't have a cent to his name and basically assumed he'd been a criminal all his life.

But man smiled a second later when Jack's password ELECTRONCALPHA was cleared through and his funds appeared under his 'name', Adrian Bennett. Toothiana held her breath for him – she didn't know what it was like to not have money being a princess and all (well, she could understand now since she and Jack basically acted like fugitives for the past couple days) but she knew how nerve-wracking it was.

"Alright sir!" the teller grinned. He had a hint of playful jealousy in his eye. "Here is your current amount."

The second he turned the screen around to show them, Jack's mouth fell open.

"Y-You're serious? _That's_ the current?" he gaped and almost couldn't believe it.

"Of course, it's all up to date from the past deposits of your workplace," the man replied warmly and Jack and Toothiana watched as the teller put a fist to his cheek and grinned cheekily.

"What do you work in?" he laughed. "Haha because your half my age, but your salary's quadruple what I make!"

Tooth covered her mouth to hide her happy grin.

"Oh my gosh, Jack," she laughed softly as he looked at her like a deer still caught in headlights.

"This is mine?" he breathed to himself. A second later a breathless, relieved smile came to his face. _"This is mine."_

_"See? You're fine,"_ Tooth whispered happily. She moved up her hand to his arm and rubbed it encouragingly. _"You're gonna be fine."_

At least _something_ was going well again.

Toothiana couldn't be happier for Jack. Now he knew that before the company wiped his memory, he was actually working in a steady career with a valid government payroll. He would definitely have to thank North again after this and with that thought, whatever resentment Toothiana still had for the 'Santa Claus' started to trickle further away. He was really true to his word when he said he'd helped them out, weapons, clothes, and cars included.

But something kept gnawing at the back of Jack's head and he leaned forward again with squinting eyes onto the screen.

"Could you tell me how far back my company's deposits went?" Jack asked. He absentmindedly put his hand over Tooth's as they both waited while the teller pulled up the history.

"Of course sir, I'll print it out for you."

Jack needed to know. He needed to know when he started working as a federal agent, as a covert operative, as a spy to Project GUARDIAN.

After the teller adjusted his glasses and he read out his search.

"Mm, your record shows that these deposits go back 5 years. Although your monthly deposits to another account stopped about three years ago. Is that correct, sir?"

"Uh..."

Tooth felt Jack's hand tense over hers and she looked at him expectantly.

_"Is it?"_ she mumbled under her breath. She really wanted him to piece together parts of his mangled past and hoped that this new bit of information would help him in his recovery.

It took a while before Jack blinked suddenly and his smile diffused Tooth and the older man's curiosity.

"Yes, I remember now," he chuckled and lied through his teeth. "It's all correct. I just had a, uh, a bit of a Christmas burnout right there."

The teller laughed in agreement but Toothiana frowned when he wasn't looking.

She felt Jack's hand grip her fingers, twitching on their own accord under the table.

After a bit more light conversation around their cockamamie plan to spend Christmas with Jack's family in Manhattan and the teller's fear of fruit cake, Jack changed his password and withdrew a solid amount from his account (which didn't even make a scratch on his fund). He and Toothiana wished the teller a Merry Christmas and left in a flutter but the second they rounded the corner, Tooth poked him in the arm and he quirked an eyebrow.

"What?"

"What do you mean 'what'?" She frowned."Your hand turned into a bear trap back there after he mentioned the company deposits."

Tooth bit her lip. "So is it true? You've been doing this for...for five years?"

Jack kept his eyes glued to the ground, still avoiding overhead cameras, and flexed his fingers. He kicked his combat boot against the airport floor.

"It must be true," he mumbled and shoved his hands into his pants pockets. "I don't remember ever doing anything else. I still can't."

Tooth pursed her lips.

"And woah, you've been with the _same_ company this whole time? And now you're what, 23 and they've been giving you a salary since then?"

"Actually I'm 24," he corrected and Tooth paused for a moment. She smiled a little to herself.

_'Aw, he's only three years older than me,'_ she squealed inwardly. She also squealed at the realization that he had told her more bits about himself and didn't treat it as a 'swear-not-to-share-or-you-die' sort of thing.

"But now what I want to know is," he continued (obviously not sensing her change in happiness), "What was the other account I kept depositing money into? And why'd I stop doing it three years ago?"

"Well, why didn't you just ask him?" she asked out loud but Jack snapped his fingers.

"A rule in discretion, Tooth; when it comes to personal information, ask as little questions as possible."

The princess stared up at him for the longest time, soaking it in, but when it started to feel creepy after a few seconds Jack scrunched his dark eyebrows together.

"What?"

Tooth blinked and looked away. A pleasant blush came to her face.

"Nothing," she shrugged. "I just like hearing you call me 'Tooth'."

He rolled his eyes.

"You really shouldn't. People will think you're weird."

Next thing he knew, she smacked his arm.

"I'm not_ weird,"_ Tooth corrected and closed her eyes, lifting her chin. _"I'm special."_

And she missed how Jack glanced at her quickly.

He lifted his eyebrows.

"I know," he said and he fondly touched the wad of cash deep in his trenchcoat as they continued to avoid getting spotted under the cameras.

And when they reached the store area, he stopped for a second at the convenience store and used his own money for the first time...on a new pack of spearmint gum.

...

_Main BNI airport lobby, 11:23 am_

By the time they both got back to the airport exiting hall (and Jack had exchanged his EU for American dollars again), another ten thousand people had filled the area. Even the second floor looking over them was jam-packed and Jack rubbed his head anxiously as his dry eyes swiveled the crowd.

"Come on, we need to catch a cab."

Tooth went into It's-Go-Time mode and tried to help Jack search the lobby in her miniature size but she wasn't much help with her height.

"I can't see anything! Can you?" she cried while Jack kept glaring through the masses. When he caught the taxi symbol way the distance, he pointed.

"Yeah, it's over there!"

"Well let's go! The sooner we get to that company and demand answers the better!"

Jack bit the inside of his cheek not bothering to hide his face after a while. There were just too many people in the airport at one time so he realized would never get ID'd properly. Jack wrapped his arm around Tooth's shoulders and used their combined size to boulder through people and she puffed her cheeks agitatedly.

"Do you–_sorry, sir! Excuse me!_–Do you remember where it is?"

"Not really, but we'll start–_pardon me, excuse_ –" He sighed. "We'll start at the place where they left me in a ditch and we'll work backwards from there."

Her eyes popped out and he paused with an impatient look.

"What now?"

"So that was true?! Th-They...what you told me...they just left you?"

"I told you. I wasn't lying."

Tooth gulped. She still remembered the look on Jack's face the first time her told her that, back when they were in Vietnam. She lashed out at him for sounding like a cheesy spy plot but he'd told her anyway, gazing up at the stars and lost with questions she hadn't yet known would affect her too – it was amazing how much had changed not only between their lives, but between them.

"Tooth, the company shutdown, remember?" he said loudly.

She looked up at him while they got squeezed together.

"What?" she squeaked as the space got tight and her face was pressed right up against his chest. Not that she minded – she'd decided he was one of the best cry pillows she'd ever needed.

"The company," he repeated. "It shutdown just before they left me for dead. I know from the memory, I told you this!"

"But if it's closed down then why are we going there? There'll be nothing to see and no one to meet!"

"You trust me?" Jack asked her just as they popped out from the family squeezing the life out of them. He gasped lightly and Tooth heaved in a deep breath of oxygen.

"You know I do, Jack," she said and he looked at her briefly. He felt his chest flush and his heart had a tiny battle with itself unsure if it should be happy or regretful.

He pushed it down and decided just to nod.

"Good. And I'm trusting North. And he told me to go back to the place where it all began."

"But why there?" she asked and the two of them had to weave through another tight crowd.

"Because–_hey, watch it!_–Argh, because North said all the agents from the Guardian program were defragmented."

"De..._De-what?_"

"Yeah," he huffed as they both burst from the second crowd. There was suddenly more room around them and Jack filled his lungs with cold air before he reworded it.

"Memory wiped."

"Then what not just _say _that?"

"No, I'm just _telling_ you because that's what _North_ told me. And so he said to go back there and...well, I don't know what'll happen, but I get the feeling once I'm standing in the same spot again, the broken one's will start to align themselves."

Tooth paused in her walk and Jack reached a hand to grab her arm – not at all like how he used to grip her and drag her everywhere, but gentle and courteous of her senses.

"Toothiana, what's up?" he asked and furrowed his eyebrows.

She frowned up at him.

"You never went back there...did you?"

His grip tightened slightly.

"I didn't want to," he muttered thinking hard about the way he felt when he'd first woken up alone, freezing, and on the brink of desperation. He sighed.

"But can you really blame me for that?"

Tooth blinked...she shook her head before she looked down between them.

"No, I can't," she mumbled. "I don't ever want to go back to that hotel."

And she meant it – even though the ELF had told them when they landed that Prime Minister Bangkot's body had been removed from the hotel and flown back to Punjam, she couldn't think about it...letting the emotion fall over her and settle cold like snow and sorrow.

Tooth tried to pick herself up and rubbed an eye delicately.

"W-Well," she started and looked up at him with a tiny smile. "Y-You got me."

And he nodded as he moved his arm away from her and tightened his hold on his backpack.

"And you got me."

"_Exactly_," and she threw him a beautiful, undeserved smile. "So between the two of us, getting there won't be a problem. And maybe, some new one's will come back and fill in the blanks. Yeah?"

"Yeah, that too," he said breathlessly and Tooth's smile still stuck to her face as they began to peddle quicker to across the lobby. "So the quicker we get to the area, the quicker we can get back to finding Pitch and your handmaidens."

He stared down at her – to think he almost lost that hopeful light in her eyes hours ago. When she caught him checking out her irises she blinked.

"What?"

He paused and rubbed his eye.

"Nothing. Just glad you're...not..."

When he faded off and felt awkward for even saying that end bit, her smile widened and she looped her arm through his. After she moved her necklace into her turtleneck, she nudged her head.

"Don't get all soft me, Bennett," she tried to lightly joke with his fake name and he blew out a breath in relief, giving her a small smile and a determined look as they left the crowd of people.

Jack slung his small backpack off his shoulder to open it and rummage through his dark clothes.

"Okay let's get a taxi and head out of northeast. And...maybe we'll stop and pickup some emergency toothbrushes so w–"

Two loud _pops_ went off.

No one reacted to it in the Christmas fever at first, thinking it was a firecracker but then–

_BANG!_

And everyone in the airport unfroze for a millisecond and realized.

It was a gunshot.

The last of three.

The echo of the rifle echoing across the airport finally sent all the people into a frenzy.

Screams rang out like banshees and families grabbed their things and their loved ones running in dizzying circles away from each other.

They wondered where it came from, who shot them, and where the shots were! But two went off course and avoided getting anyone so the violent shoving and crying, and an alarm system immediately blared across the area.

But Jack didn't feel any of it.

Time suddenly slowed down and it felt like someone had just hit him in the back of his shoulder with a sledgehammer.

"H...A..."

His backback fell and he dropped his arm from Tooth's.

"Adrian? J..._Jack? _What's wr_–_"

The second he stumbled and bent forward suddenly, her heart stopped.

There was blood.

And a hole in his trenchoat.

Jack's breath got caught in his throat and suddenly saw Tiati's face getting sprayed with blood and the bullet hole in Mr. Bangkot's head.

Tooth dropped her bag.

Jack gritted his teeth as a scream tried to wretch itself from his throat and Toothiana rushed in to hold him up. Her heart tried to catch up with her.

"O-OH MY GOD!" she screamed. "_NO!_ No, no, no!"

"Kat," he gritted out between teeth. Jack's maple, brown eyes widened at her distress and tried to hold her steady. "Kat!" But she wasn't listening.

"Thia! _Tooth_!"

She kept putting her hands everywhere, unsure of what to do but he needed her calm. "It's-it's_ okay._ We just need to–"

She gripped him so tightly she thought the bones in her fingers would snap.

"Y-You got hit and-and there's a bu–there's a bul–"

"Tooth!"

Jack bent a little against her as his eyes as the pain screamed across his chest and flared up around his collarbone.

He snapped his head behind him.

'_Entrance wound from behind...__Near-accurate shot to the heart so it's gotta be a sniper assault. But he missed.'_

Jack put his good arm around her shoulder again. He tried to shield her head as he swept the crowd with cold eyes and searched each body for any signs of calm preparedness.

Immediately on the second floor, he found it.

A sharpshooter dressed in all black with a black ski mask and yellow goggles was finishing de-assembling his M40A3 before he shot Jack a quick look and pulled out a gun. Then, he was gone in a flash.

"We have to move!" Jack screamed and on heavy feet and a rapid heartbeat, he dragged himself forcefully toward the door with Tooth under him.

She shook violently as her mouth continued to hang open.

'_Jack got shot...h-he got __**shot**__...he just got shot but he's been so careful and I–'_

"Oh no! Oh no please, I–I..."

Cold sweat and wet eyes made it hard for her breathe.

"W-Who did it?..._Wh-Who did it!?_"

"It was a N'...Nightmare!" Jack wheezed and Pitch's voice suddenly leaked into his brain.

_You can't hide from a Nightmare._

"S-Son of a–"

A second later a man flying with two luggage bags knocked them both in the back and they were tossed forward. Tooth almost crumpled under Jack's dying weight as he slumped forward heavily with a gasping breath.

"Jack!"

The two nearly fell on the ground if Tooth hadn't stuck out her boot and caught herself. Toothiana grabbed him against her again, almost losing it when he bit down on his tongue and clumsily tried to find his footing.

Jack moved his arm from around her and pushed his hand up to the gunshot above his heart.

"_Sh-Shit!_"

"Jack, w...W-What is it!?"

"The b'..." he stopped to breathe through his nose as a shot of pain blurred his eyes for a sec. "Th' bullet's still inside me."

"Wh...Wh–" Tooth stopped and looked around. "You need a hos–Where's–S-Somebody help!"

"No, I don't _need a h'sptal!_"

But no one around them could see (or care) that the shots fired through the crowd had been intended for him – they were too busy caring about themselves and their own families...and Jack's black trenchcoat hid the bullet wound and the growing patch of blood too well.

"Somebody, a-anybody?! _Help_ _please!"_

Her scream was loud and desperate and she _refused_ to cry or be a baby again; but the same distress started bubbling up from the place she'd tried hours ago to push down with his help.

She heaved in agony to scream again but Jack grabbed her arm.

"ANYONE! _PLEASE!"_

"Toothiana, _no!_"

But she whirled on him wanting to hold him and smack him at the same time.

"NO! I am NOT gonna lose you too!"

And Jack stopped for a second before he tried to swallow out the desperation in her tone and inside her eyes. She looked like she was seeing a million things with him and he had a terrifying guess as to where they were.

_'I'm not gonna lose you...pain in my ass or not, y-you...Jack you are NOT–' _And she gasped on her breath and gritted her teeth.

"You're not, I swear! It's _okay_," he growled under another shot of pain and his gaze started to grow less sharp.

"But what're we–What will you..._J–_"

"I have you, _and that's enough,_ alright?"

Tooth shook her head a little and felt something feel like her ribs being pulled away.

She gasped to stop it.

"B-But I can't do anything!" she cried and they tried moving forward. The Nightmare might have been at nearly the other side of the airport and the crowd may be too big a sea to spot them, but Jack was still alive, which meant he'd still come after them.

"I'm not a med student or surgeon! You _know _that!" she choked and gasped again to stop that horrible shudder that made her ribs want to split apart. "And why haven't you passed out yet?! You should be...a-and I can't–"

"You're _enough_, Tooth!" he snapped back to shut her up and kept trying to focus on the crowd. "And I'm not gonna pass out! I'm built stronger than you think, remember?"

"What are y–"

She stopped.

* * *

_"They trained us to control our bodily needs in extreme conditions. It's all mental willpower so I don't sweat. Or really need sleep, or get hungry..."_

* * *

"C-Can you turn off pain?"

Jack looked down at her through painful eyes like she was a crazy person.

"Obviously not," he said and rolled his eyes and trudged forward. "B-But I can endure it."

'_But for how long?!'_ she wondered fearfully and rubbed her eyes above her eyeshadow in anxiety.

"So just get me outta here," he said and she rushed down quickly to grab his backpack off the floor and carried it with her own bags. "I can remove it myself and patch it up with the things in Hue's carryon. We still got it right?"

"N-No, _you_ tossed it back in Moscow when the Nightmares attacked us! R-Remember?!"

"Oh right, _damn._"

Jack turned again and saw colors blur this way and that but when he spotted a steady blur of black about thirty yards away, he panicked. Pitch's Nightmare fired two bullets in their general direction and Tooth squeezed her eyes shut.

"Aah!"

"He's _coming._ S-Serpentine, Tooth!" Jack cried and she looked at him for a clue. He scrunched his eyebrows hastily. "Remember back on the motorcycle? And the car?!"

And Tooth suddenly remembered how Jack weaved in and out in both, blurring their pursuers' trajectories and getting away.

She took a deep breath and started counting. _"One...Two..._" then quickly swerved Jack and herself into a one crowd then out another.

...

Meanwhile, Jack's assailant lowered his gun as Jack's unruly, brown hair suddenly vanished. He sped up around some people and shoved a man brutally to one side when he caught them briefly dive into the crowd on the right...then suddenly appear in between a family on the left...then between two guys diagonal to him!

He gritted his teeth behind his ski-mask and tightened his grip on his rifle.

The princess moved Jack Frost around like a damn, little hummingbird! He violently punched the wall concrete beam beside him.

They _weren't _gonna get the slip on him, especially when one of them was already shot.

...

_Panicking BNI airport lobby, 11:49 am_

"Ohh, d-don't you die on me!" Tooth huffed as she stuck her legs out farther than normal to help support his stride.

"I'm not gonna _die,_" Jack growled and felt another shot of pain erupt across him. He hissed through his nose sharply when he felt his shoulder start to develop that cold, sticky feeling. It meant the blood was large enough to puddle together and trickle out.

"Quit being so dramatic."

"But you're–"

Tooth stopped and almost cried out when she saw his shirt through his open trenchcoat. A small, red spot was growing over where his heart was.

"Y-Y...You're bleeding!" she screamed and moved into the cover it when he pulled away.

"Argh, no Tooth! Stop!" Jack shouted and she jumped back. She put both hands over her mouth and pretended the cover was like a paper bag. She breathed in and out quickly, her heart tearing in two different directions.

'_Get help...get out...get help...get out!'_

_Boom Boom._

"_Code White, we repeat, Code White. Security to the Arrival Terminal."_

"What did sh–"

Suddenly what sounded like a roll of thunder came about fifteen yards closer and Jack's grip on Tooth's shoulder turned ghostly white. When he turned his head, he saw the familiar suits of airport security and several cop uniforms trailing behind and up in the top floors.

His eyes widened.

"The cops!" he bit out. "They'll see me and Pitch's Nightm–argh!"

Jack suddenly doubled over slightly in pain and a patch of black, much bigger this time, knocked his vision out for a second.

"I _need_ to get you to a hospital, Jack!" she cried. "B-But what if he follows us? What if he stops us?! Then what'll we do?! What'll I–"

She stopped and gasped again, harder this time and tried think about mint gum and counting again.

'_I like gum...I like birds,'_ she started rambling off in her head and tightened her hold on Jack's bags and kept moving with him forward. _'I like watching Moulin Rouge with my roommates, and I like teaching Tulia how to bike...'_

"To..._Too._.." Jack panted and Tooth stepped in closer to hold his arm for him when he suddenly stumbled on his feet slightly.

"No, Jack!" she said, feeling aggressively more determined. "N-No! We're almost there!"

But she was lying. The exit was still about fifty steps away and everyone was moving too fast. Jack moving slowing a little and breathe harder through his nose. His feet felt like lead and his muscles were like jelly, but his eyes squinted open to see as best he could.

"W-Where's the exit?!" Jack wheezed and his voice became slightly more breathy.

His clear, crisp voice started to slur slightly and his eyes saw another spot of black try to form. Tooth looked and saw his face beginning to wash away with color – the same kind of terror he wore when he came back from his fight with the Nightmares.

"I can see it b-but you gotta move with me okay?!"

He took a few painful steps forward and gritted his teeth again. Tooth bit her lip and gripped him like a cobra, blinking more and more each time to stay focused, to stay dry.

"W-Wh're is it? Are y'sure?!"

"Yes, Jack!" she urged and guessed he kept asking because he was starting to see a little less clearly – and that terrified her more.

"It's right over there, _right over there!_ You just follow me like you s–"

_FWUMP!_

Two people knocked the tiny princess nearly off her feet and she spun violently. Jack grabbed her but the swerve made him dizzy until the two of them were facing another direction.

"Oh stop! Please!" Toothiana wailed as loudly as she could at the people but the airport was on Code White and the law enforcement and Pitch's assassin weren't helping them to stop.

When the two came to an-almost stop, Tooth blinked her pink eyes again and frantically searched around for the taxi sign.

"W-Where'd it go?!"

She twisted neck, snapped her head around but no matter what corner she turned to or sign she read, she couldn't find it again.

"T-Tooth!" Jack cried and tried to tell her to stand on her tiptoes but he stopped when he felt the blood start to move down his chest and back. He paused for a moment when the horrible feel of it began to seep deeper into his shirt and Tooth turned to look at him, just as it started to show more profoundly over his heart like a cold spread of darkness.

"No!"

Tooth held him with both arms but nearly toppled back when they both got hit again. Throwing her foot back to catch them, Jack slid forward more until his head rested on her shoulder. He shut his eyes and gritted his teeth as another shot of fire ripped through him. He hissed against her ear.

_"Argh, we n'd t–"_

"I-I know, I know!" she wailed and out of fear and Tooth moved her right arm up to push into his hair. "I'm looking!"

But the more she swivelled and felt stressed for time, the more Tooth's hold on him grew harder. She knuckles turned white and her breathing got shorter as she eyed everyone like a criminal. Flashes of black suddenly swarmed around them. They were all just men in business coats but Tooth eyed them like demons.

"No, no, no, no..." Toothiana squeezed her hand in his thick hair and squeezed her wet eyes shut for a second.

Jack was the one person she had left right now. He was the only one who wasn't a lie from the beginning and never lied period. He never left her behind and was always there to protect her, and now that they finally got a place where they thought they could heal, she had to consider the possibility that she'd lose him tonight like everyone else...and she couldn't bear it.

"Not again..._Not again..._"

The princess turned and decided to just follow the crowd and find the taxi place _after_, but when she moved away from Jack's torso and looked up, ready to tug him forward–

And they saw the Nightmare was ten feet away in the crowd, _standing directly in front of them._

_"T-Tooth?"_ he mumbled shakily.

She didn't hear him however as the Nightmare's rifle lifted and aimed it at Jack's chest.

Tooth's heart immediately dropped in her stomach.

"Tooth?!"

_'Not again...NOT AGAIN!'_

And she didn't hesitate.

_Click._

"Tooth, _run–_"

And she spun herself into Jack, wrapping her arms around him tightly and shielding his front.

His eyes widened and gripped her horrifically.

"TOOTH, N–"

But two shots went off and Tooth gasped for air.

...

After the second was heard, Toothiana's tears sprung from her eyes and ran down her cheeks.

They both went perfectly still, waiting for the shots to reveal themselves...but the first bang didn't come from Pitch's Nightmare.

He'd pulled the first trigger, yes...but _something_ (the first one to go off) exploded right in front of the Nightmare's chest as he did, and it threw his path off-course in a beam!

A bright light blinded him, a mini shockwave sent him flying back into five people and they all crashed onto the floor.

Pitch's Nightmare snapped his head around like a malfunctioning robot once the little bomb's smoke dissipated in front of him, he looked furiously through his ski goggles.

Who was the little _shit_ that managed that?!

...

After seeing he was distracted, a six-foot guy nonchalantly (but hastily) walked up to the princess. He gripped her arm and leaned down to speak into her ear.

"Let 'im go, sheila, or we can't move 'im quick enough."

But the second his deep, gruff, Australian accent puffed warm breath onto her face, Tooth flinched violently like a ruffled bird.

"W-Who are you?!"

Jack's eyes cracked open. He snapped his head up at the sound of an unwelcomed visitor.

The guy was a little older than Jack by 2-3 years but his acid, green eyes showed a sharpness well beyond that. His posture was cool and confident and he had a strong, defined face and a stubbly chin. Tooth also noticed his short, dark brown hair had a shock of silver on one side. He'd frosted the tips blue.

When neither said anything, he furrowed his dark, thick eyebrows and frowned.

"Well? You two gonna move _or what_?"

Toothiana's glare darkened. Earlier she wanted the stranger's to help her, calling out desperately despite Jack's protests for support but when no one did and the Nightmare showed up now she felt she could only trust Jack and while it hurt to think that, she couldn't help it.

"Well?!" he urged again and Jack seemed to notice the change in Tooth since her silence was filled with the constant screaming and alarms still going off.

"Th..._Kat_," he switched to her fake name tensely. "W...Wh..."

Tooth heard him breathe through his nostrils again and sized up her chest achingly.

"Just...just get us to the exit, please!" she finally mustered and the stranger nodded.

"Right."

Jack glared at the Nightmare briefly (who was still looking for the person who threw that smoke bomb) as Tooth moved her arms from him and went to quickly support him on his right side. The mysterious Australian stranger supported Jack (much easier with _his_ height) on the left and he looked around them for another quick second. Jack cringed slightly under his touch, still not used to anyone touching him other than Tooth but the pain hurt like a bitch.

"Wait for it," their 'friend' muttered and narrowed his eyes, waiting for a sudden wave of people and a group of businessmen that were grouping together. When the cluster passed, he signalled Tooth to start walking.

"Come on, you two," he hissed.

Tooth and Jack turned with him to trail in line with the men and once Tooth matched their strides with her short ones, all eight of them looked like a train sweeping away.

...

The assassin meanwhile finally got off the ground. He checked his rounds quickly before he growled angrily.

Forget the punk who tossed that light grenade. He needed to go after Jack Frost again, the guy who suddenly drew a lot of criminal interest recently. Everyone thought he was a urban myth of a criminal, wanted by so many international agencies and feared in rundown hangouts but so far no one could catch the guy, much less touch him. Now, he was suddenly appearing _and he had the Princess Thia_ Pitch had been talking about for Operation Nightmare.

So this was his chance.

He'd gotten that report earlier that Pitch lost them in Wales and just as he was going to start his evil rounds in the Bronx, he spotted them – the princess and the damnable pain in Pitch's ass for days. So he got out the bipod and didn't call anyone for backup because _he _wanted the pleasure of offing Jack alone!

But now that plan looked like it would go up in smoke as he raged behind his mask and stormed ahead. Jack and the princess had vanished again and unless he wanted that pride, he had to tear through the crowd again and find him!

With a bullet near Frost's heart, they wouldn't have anything or anyone to stop him...but he didn't anticipate a new player to the field.

...

_Evacuating BNI airport, 12:17 pm_

Jack and Tooth's strange partner exhaled sharply through his nose as he helped moved Jack away with the princess and focused his mind back on the assassin behind them.

Thank his lucky rabbit's foot he made it just in time! Now he was one step ahead of Pitch's idiot and he would keep the score that way since he knew he'd planned it right. Tactical expertise was one of his _best_ skills and he prepared and used it to incapacitate people in situations like this. He timed everything down to a T and threw distractions with accuracy, like that bomb, like an egg to the face.

As he thought deeply to himself, Tooth leaned up to Jack's ear.

"_Don't worry,"_ she mumbled heatedly. _"__I'll__ ditch him once he gets us out of here."_

Jack looked down.

"_You got a plan?"_

"_Yes."_

"_Does it involve kicking his balls?"_

A part of her was proud that he seemed to remember that.

"_Nope, not this time."_

"_Okay then, when I count to three, do what you need to and I–"_

But Jack stopped as movement on his left stirred his attention a different way.

He watched through painful eyes as the taller brunette suddenly pulled out a silencer from inside his waistcoat, flicked his gaze behind him for a brief millisecond. He strained his ears powerfully in one section then without looking back, the guy shot a silent bullet behind him. It hit the clock right above the Nightmare perfectly.

As the glass fell, Pitch's goon stopped his hot pursuit instantly and spun to see what had caused it. When he did, the Aussie pulled out another tiny smoke bomb and tossed it forcefully his way.

It exploded right near Nightmare's his ear and he screeched painfully and doubled over. The crowd around him became a swarm of shrieks and sprinting. And that was their queue to leave.

"Now move, _move!_" he barked under his heavy breath.

Tooth and their mysterious hero guided Jack out at a diagonal cross and they tore through the taxi exit.

They rushing under a tunnel now with the rest of the people, screams of 'what's happening back there?!' and 'stay close guys' and the ever-prevalent 'worst Christmas ever!' seemed to bounce like ping pong balls. Jack moved quickly on his feet despite the numbing sensation trickling itself down his limbs. He tried to twirl a piece of the wind in his fingers. The stranger looked at his determined jaw set on the exit and he shifted his hold on Jack tighter.

"Atta boy," he mumbled gruffly but suddenly–

_Bang!_

A gunshot inside the airport went off close by and the wave of people began hurrying around them. He lifted his thick eyebrows high on his head.

"Crikey..."

"It's the cops!" Tooth cried after she looked over her shoulder and Jack's eyebrows shot up his forehead.

"I..." he gulped. "We need to go! _Now!"_

And the Aussie picked up speed while Tooth struggled to keep up. When they saw the taxi/passenger pickups, the Australian pointed to a parked one with dark windows close to the entrance.

"Go there!" he barked and when she nodded, they all rushed forward through the glass doors into a blast of New York's snowstorm.

And he nodded just as they stepped out of the threshold. The people outside were jaywalking, no jay-_sprinting_, their way through the cars and biting snow, and vehicles screeching away from the airport. Tens of police/ambulance lights blinded every path and it was _definitely_ not supposed to be the scene of a Christmas Eve morning at the airport. That's when Tooth took a few more deep breaths before she leaned up to Jack.

"_I'm ready,"_ she hissed over the sound of the noise and Jack mumbled under his breath as the winter air blasted them in the face and the space was easier to move through.

"_Alright, one..."_

"_Two..."_

And when they reached new to the taxi, Tooth tightened her fist.

"_Three."_

Jack abruptly stopped walking and the guy paused to see what was wrong – but that was perfect opportunity as Tooth fiercely spun and kicked him in the shin with her boot.

The second he doubled over in surprised pain, Tooth let go of Jack and he spun his entire body around to throw his good elbow into an aggressive strike at the guy's torso. As they watched him choke and keel over, Jack shoved his hand into the guy's coat pocket and fished out his taxi's keys.

"Catch!" He tossed them to Tooth. "You drive!"

Toothiana immediately unlocked the taxi and opened the back door. After Jack tossed himself in, she shut the door and sprinted around the side to get in the driver's seat. Her skirt floated behind her wildly in the cold, December wind but she only touched a finger to the handle when the Aussie suddenly reappeared beside her with the more feral look on his face.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

His lips pulled back in a silent snarl to reveal large, straight teeth and his surprise pop-up made her cover her mouth in terror and she backed into the back door of the taxi instead. Tooth blindly began reaching for the door handle to get Jack out – or go in, she wasn't sure.

"I...I need to get him to a hospital!" she tried to gasp bravely but the sound of gunshots going off and Jack's blood mixed with her uncles was all she could really see. "W-We're sorry b-but–"

"Oy, do you even know these streets? " he asked threateningly and Tooth's eyebrows shot up as if he was questioning capability.

"Yes!" she lied and he easily saw through it.

"That guy need's a special sew-up, trust me!"

"Which is why a surgeon can do it!"

And Tooth tried to push past him but he grabbed her arm and pushed her away from the driver's seat.

"Let me go!" she screamed and he pulled back instantly. His eyebrows knitted together.

"You don't get it," he muttered loudly over the constant screaming. "We're running out of time!"

"I _know!_" she bellowed and she dropped one hand and secretly brushed it again her pistol under her skirt. "So stop getting in my way or he–"

"No, you don't! That's bullet's laced!"

And Tooth stopped.

"W...How would–"

"So you _can't_ go to a hospital, princess. I need to take it out myself!"

"Oh yeah, where?!"

"Where Pitch's Nightmare can't find you! On _North's_ orders."

"Wh–"

And she mind stopped and her mouth went slack with fear.

'_He called me princess...he's knows about the Nightmare...and he said North.'_

Tooth gasped despite her jackhammer heart but he didn't want to hear the rest of it.

"I know who you are, princess. Now get in! And gimme my keys before he spots us."

And Tooth barely registered the rest as she handed them numbly over and opened the back door. As she climbed in and the Australian moved into the driver's seat, Jack instantly panicked and whirled on her.

"_You let him in?!"_ he seethed. _"Why would y–"_

Tooth gasped for air and shut her eyes.

"I know,_ I know!"_ she heaved but after taking a moment to look down darkly onto the taxi's carpet, she whirled in her seat.

Tooth reached under her skirt for her left pistol and put it to his head around his headrest. She took a steady breath.

"Ten seconds: Your connection with North or your brains _all over the dashboard!_" she growled and clicked off the safety.

Jack and the Australian looked at her in shock. When his green eyes flit to the rearview mirror, he caught her pause in her tirade to pull away her face slightly with a horrified look on her face.

'_I...Oh my god, Tooth!' _

She suddenly pictured Tiana back away from her in fear, telling her she didn't know her anymore...but Tooth shook her head.

'_No! This is n-necessary...I need to make sure we'll be okay. That Jack will be okay!'_

Tooth swallowed tightly and pushed her gun into his hair again.

She gritted her teeth in angry shame.

"_Talk!_"

The green-eyed Aussie looked at her again and hesitantly raised his hands slowly.

He was honestly confused and sorely worried – but North said she was a sweet girl, a raised to be a princess! So wh–

Jack didn't want to sit idly by and watch for their exchange.

He glared and even though he couldn't see straight anymore, and reached under Tooth's skirt and pulled out the second gun. He clicked off the safety too and poised it gently at the guy too, ready in case he did something to Tooth. But the Australian heard the _click_ with his powerful ears and looked at Jack in the glass with a dark look.

Oh. So that's where she learned to be so hostile.

His glare darkened on Jack's face, despite seeing it grow clammy from the wound and he spoke to Tooth, but kept his gaze steady locked with Jack's.

"An ELF sent me a message and sent me the coordinates to here," he explained slowly. "But that shouldn't even matter right now since the guy needs medical help."

"So then _where_ are you taking us?" Tooth hissed again and he blinked at her and pointed to the onboard screen of his taxi's computer.

Tooth lifted her gaze for a second to stare at the GPS on taxi's dashboard but when she did, her mouth fell open.

It was not a GPS. Well not, _just_ a GPS.

The guy's entire onboard setup was like something out of a sci-fi movie. He had touchscreens and keyboard navigation and two small computer monitors doing _something_ with algorithms she couldn't read. It was all so high-tech and the techie in Tooth won over as she silently adored the gadgets latched onto his ride.

"That's...that's your system?" she gawked, completely off homicidal-Tooth-mode. He looked back at her and nodded.

"Well yeah," he said stiffly, still worried about the two guns pointed at him. "She's a beaut. I configured the entire hard drive did it myself."

"W..._Wow_," she breathed despite herself and Jack blinked up at her in shock.

"Serious–_Gah!_" He stopped to twist slightly when his wound throbbed painfully.

Tooth and the guy blinked and she moved away slowly from the driver seat into the back, keeping her gun up at his head as a warning before she put it away.

"I'm taking you both to The Warren. Enough questions," the guy muttered and he started the engine, wiping the windshield and revving the gas.

A second later, their mysterious partner tore away from the curb and jetted the sleek cab into the connecting roads.

As he started to gain speed, four bullets were fired just behind them.

...

_Outside the BNI airport, 12:20 pm_

The green-eyed brunette glared through his side view mirrors and his onboard trunk-camera. Pitch's Nightmare was shooting up all the cars in blind aggression as the idiot did, several cop cars showed up. On impulse, Tooth watched the taller brunette press the gas a little too hard and–

_Screech!_

The cab's tires echoed loudly around the drop-off!

The Nightmare turned instantly to their cab speeding away and he bolted down the icy cement sidewalk after them.

Tooth's heartbeat picked up in her chest. She bit her lip as the guy swerved the taxi in and out of stopping traffic while Jack gritted his teeth as the car swayed violently.

"What the _hell_, man!" Jack growled, unimpressed. "_Stay calm_."

"Oy, pull your head in!" he snapped from the front and Jack narrowed his eyes.

"What did you just say to me?!"

But the guy gritted his teeth and continued twisting through the traffic.

Tooth saw them again in the rearview mirror.

'_Okay, I admit it. Those are some awesome teeth–I mean –Gah!'_

She shook her head.

'_Really Tooth?! Really?! NOW?!'_

Well, okay no set of teeth could beat Jack's in her opinion but–

"Bullocks!" he suddenly cried and Tooth snapped her head to the onboard trunk-cam.

The Nightmare was catching up to them...on his feet! And after realising who the shooter was after, so were the police!

"Oh no!"

He swerved the car again and Jack smacked into Tooth with an angry grunt.

_"Argh! _Do something, idiot!"

"I am!"

"What?!"

But just as they got closer (and Pitch's deranged assassin and the police got closer) he pressed 'auto-drive' on his computer and opened his driver's door.

A second later, the guy flung the top half of his body over the side.

"Oh MY GOD!" Tooth screamed over the howl of the hoarfrost.

She moved away from Jack to pull him back in but then they both felt the car suddenly begin to shake_._

"W-Wh't's he doin t'the car?!" Jack hissed out painfully.

Tooth eased him back gently and scrambled to the window to see. When she did, her face was slapped with cold and her skin turned pale.

"J-Jack? ...I-It's not the car!" she mumbled through chattering teeth.

She watched as the snowy concrete around the car suddenly split and crack apart. It began to drift backwards so Tooth climbed up and sat against the backseat. Tooth watched in silent horror as the cracks they ran over continued to grow behind them.

Her mouth fell open. Jack saw her move to the window and open it all the away and stick her head out.

"What is it?!" He wanted to reach over and pull her back in (or join her) but the pain in his shoulder stopped him. "Tooth!"

But she ignored him so Jack decided it was easier to see what she was seeing through the trunk-cam on the onboard computer.

His mouth fell open too.

"Wh...what the f–" But a loud roll like thunder suddenly covered his yell, the car honks, the gunshots, and the police sirens. The concrete road behind them began to split apart and create deep fissures crawling away and the more they appeared, the more the shaking increased.

It suddenly felt like someone had lifted the vehicle and was abruptly moving it side-to-side and Tooth lost her balance.

When she banged into side of the window, she let loose a string of English-Thai curse words and the brunette cried out briefly when another shot of pain got past his jedi pain defences.

"_Argh, _Toothiana! What's–"

"I-It's an earthquake! But...But it's–_Holy crap!_"

The cracks grew larger and spread like veins across both highways, making cars either speed up or slow down to avoid them until it started to do something.

The rocks began to twist on themselves, cracking up and coiling in like there was something moving underneath – then it rushed forward in a rock wave towards the direction of the airport – towards the Nightmare and the cops! And when it reached them the concrete began to crumble. It gave away bit-by-bit as if something were eating from beneath and as the hole grew bigger and deeper, all the cars that were following behind them hit their breaks to avoid falling in.

That included the Nightmare chasing on foot.

He stopped short of a now giant hole in the highway and side flipped to avoid getting hit by a car – but a truck hit him instead and he was tossed into the horrible pit.

"_Oh my god_," Tooth breathed and Jack widened his eyes, mumbling disbelievingly.

"That's not an earthquake, Toothiana. That's a _sinkhole_."

The cops rammed hard on their brakes and immediately got out, ushering everyone out of their vehicles to get them away from the seismic activity.

Tooth watched helplessly as several people stumbled on the shaky ground.

'_How is this happening?!...__Wait, oh no! The guy!'_

She didn't see him roll out of the car yet and glanced back to the front of the taxi to see if he was still alive or not.

"Wh-WHAT?"

He was. But he had this hard, focused look on his face – the same look she saw Nicholas St. North have when he used his desire gene on that Nightmare, and the same one she saw Jack have when he blew apart the alley with that hurricane.

"He's..._He's..._"

"Too...T!" Jack grunted. "Wh'ts he's doing?"

She mumbled out the rest as she watched his hand continue drag out cracks in the road beside the taxi.

"H-He's doing it. He's..._m-making_ it."

And she continued to watch with her own eyes as the smooth cracks that erupted from his fingertips until he was done.

When he thought there was enough distance to stop the Nightmare and distract the rest of the airport's visitors, the Australian guy twisted himself back into the taxi. Tooth bit her lip and moved back into the warmth of the cab as he shut the door and turned the car off auto-drive. When the split in the road finally came up, he took the road on the left leading to the highway.

The second he exhaled a deep breath, she eyed him with wide eyes.

"Y-You have it," she mumbled. Jack didn't hear when he growled under his breath as another shot of pain spiked through him.

"Argh!" but the guy heard with his extensively-acute ears and he furrowed his thick, skeptical brows.

"Hm?" he said under his breath and she exhaled shakily, staring at him through the mirror.

"You h-have _it_." And she narrowed her eyes nervously. "Th–"

But Jack suddenly fell on her slightly and her attention immediately switched to him. As she helped ease Jack back, her hand smeared across his chest and she looked down at it in terror. She ignored the guy and the scenes that were flying past the cab's windows.

Pulling his trenchcoat away, Tooth choked slightly when she saw how red his hand was. She patted herself and bag for anything to stop the bleeding.

"I...I-I don't have a towel or a sock," she shivered apprehensively and Jack eyed her worriedly. He didn't have anything in his bag either and hadn't remembered to ask or take any from the ELFs.

Tooth then stopped when she felt a lump in her pocket. Pulling it out, she saw the Christmas handkerchief the little girl gave her and wadded it into a tight square and pressed it with both palms above his heart.

Jack hissed out painfully but otherwise looked fine and moved to hold it with her.

"It's f-fine...Y-You'll be fine..." Tooth kept jittering through cold lips and she shut her eyes, counting to ten in her head again.

No one was really sure if she was saying it for him or for herself.

...

_Outside Buffalo, 12:56 pm_

Jack was silent for the next fifteen minutes trying to regulate his breathing and move as little as possible.

He knew the severities of gun shots (having _been through_ a couple more times than he'd liked to remember) but he didn't want to do anything drastic since he knew the princess was in a fragile mind. It showed as she sat away from him to try and give him space, but her catatonic state and her tight breathing put him on edge.

'_You should talk to him!'_ she kept thinking, trying to warm up and playing with her glove in her lap. _'That's what people do so they don't pass out right? So talk!'_

But when she looked at Jack, the brunette was staring coldly around the car and out the wintery windows, his face set on mental assessments and escape routes. She decided to pretend he was fine for a second and glared back at their driver.

"So what is a 'warren'?" she asked bravely.

The Aussie cast his forest, green eyes to his rearview mirror and looked at the princess. As he did, the sun peeked through a cloud over them and the light danced over her face. Suddenly her dark, pink eyes popped like jewels against her gold brown skin.

He blinked before he focused back on the road.

"Not _a _warren, _The Warren_, princess," he said firm and proud. "An underground bunker I designed myself with North's discretion."

When he finished answering, Tooth and Jack watched him turn off the highway and follow a steady road into the more country part of the state past the suburbs. He kept looking at his onboard screen and tapping things to dismiss updates or send messages before he continued.

"Nightmares haven't tracked me there yet and I get messages from the ELFs down under."

She furrowed her eyebrows.

"What's y'ur name?" Jack finally spoke and the two looked at him in surprise – they almost forgot he was there. The Aussie stared at him before he tightened his glove on the wheel and glared through the windshield.

"The name's Aster," he said with such conviction that Jack didn't push it. But Tooth had no filter at the moment and raised her eyebrows.

"Aster. _Seriously?_"

He nodded and Tooth's mouth dropped slightly in frustration.

"You expect me to believe that?!"

When he didn't answer, she whirled on Jack.

"And _you_," she started and was tripping up on her words. "Shouldn't you be passed out right about now? Because we almost died _again_ and there's a bullet in you and I haven't seen a hospital in sight even though he–"

Tooth paused when Jack craned his neck at her.

He glared slightly through his shifting vision before his eyebrows scrunched together and he looked away.

He didn't bother to answer her either. When she looked between both of them and their weirdly dyed hair, she sighed and fell back against her seat with her fists balled tight beside her skirt. She felt 20% alone, 30% in distress, and the other 50% suddenly pissed.

"I swear to god, wh_..._Why am I_ always _surrounded by men with no social skills?!" she muttered bitterly.

"Oy, I heard that," the guy quipped from the front and Jack quirked a brow.

"Your big ears _would_ hear that," he retorted.

Tooth gaped, ready to slander Jack for his rudeness since he'd just saved their life. But the guy glanced at the brunette through the rearview mirror.

"Pfft, you're one to talk, mate."

Jack sent him a dark look.

He had no back comment and shut up instantly, feeling nausea wash over him and seeing more black spots than he could count.

Blowing out a shaky breath, Jack suddenly reached into trenchcoat painfully and produced the gum he bought for Tooth. She watched him pop a stick in his mouth tensely before he looked at her.

He then gave the rest to her and she choked slightly at the gesture, and did the same.

...

_Buffalo, abandoned dirt plot, 1:17 pm_

Jack didn't say anything as he stepped out of the car with Tooth's help – he actually hadn't said a word since that ear comment and that worried both Tooth and their 'new friend.'

When they were all out of the car, the snow was up to their ankles and Tooth moved Jack quickly across a dirt patch away to give him air to breathe and he weakly stirred a breeze between his finger as she watched, her little heart battering wildly in her chest.

Every nerve in her body was telling her to kick this guy in the nuts, steal his car, and drive Jack back to the city the more she realised how dumb she was to let this guy drive them out to the middle of nowhere.

What if he actually _was_ a Nightmare in disguise and they'd been emotionally crazy about getting out of the airport alive? Cold sweat started to form and freeze on her neck.

'_Oh __god__, now he's going to leave Jack to bleed to death in grass, and take me t–'_

"This way, you two! Come on!" Aster harped and gestured to a tiny wooden structure at the end of the road. He tightened his fur-laced jacket over his head before he quickly moved to Jack's side and hoisted him up again. Jack cried out painfully and for a moment, his vision fuzzed dangerously out of focus. But he couldn't move his left hand up to rub his eye.

"My..." he bit out. "M' arm's numb."

Tooth nervously moved her hand holding around his waist to clutch it and almost cried out. His normally, cold fingertips were deathly frozen and blood dripped onto the beautiful white snow like rubies.

Aster saw blood on the princess' fingers when she pulled it away.

"Make sure he puts pressure on that!" he barked and Tooth moved her other hand shakily up into his trenchcoat and pressed her palm over it.

Their boots crunched across grass and hard ice blanketing the landscape. But with each breath, Jack's lungs burned against the very element he loved most and his blood marked the away.

Aster would handle it later.

At the end of the dirt patch, there was a tiny wooden tool shed that looked like it hadn't been touched in years. Aster opened it and stepped inside and as Tooth moved Jack inside too they saw it was set up like a kid's abandoned clubhouse or something. An old toy robot and a stuffed rabbit sat on a wooden shelf and some broken pieces of colorful chalk littered the frost-covered grass in a perfect cover up.

Once they were all standing in the tiny, confined space, he shut the door and let the semi-darkness engulf them.

Jack blinked painfully against the change in the lighting and clenched his jaw. Aster glared down at the shorter brunette.

"How ya holding up?" he mumbled softly as the warm air billowed past his lips.

Tooth looked back at Jack and frowned openly. They watched his skin grow more washed out.

His eyelids fluttered, desperate to keep open but after his gaze locked on the stuffed animal, Jack gritted his teeth.

"Never better, cottontail," he muttered.

Aster's look darkened but when he saw the princess' nervous gaze from the tension and small space of the shed, he let up instantly and relaxed his angry features.

"Okay, good on ya," he replied, trying to respect Jack's endurance for pain and stamina. "Now let's get you patched up."

Jack looked unconvinced.

"In here? Wh'..._Wh–!_" but he suddenly wheezed out and Tooth's eyebrows shot up in alarm.

"_Jack?_"

"I..." he gasped again and suddenly his heart felt like it dropped into his stomach. "_I-I–"_

His body convulsed slightly and Tooth moved in to check his gun wound again but he coughed out.

Jack began to breathe heavily.

"Jack!"

The strong burning sensation he'd been trying to repress for nearly 40 minutes now was starting to build and he couldn't understand why. He'd been hit before in other places and always lasted out to at least an hour and half on the pain.

But this wasn't the same...the gun shot suddenly _felt_ different.

"I need–" he gasped. "I _n'd_..."

"Oy, hang on mate!" the Aussie cried and tapped his boot on the frost-covered glass twice and suddenly, seven blue lights lit up in a small circle around them and the ground they were standing on lowered slightly.

Tooth gulped and Jack leaned on her more heavily as the blue light seared past his shut eyelids.

"An-Another sinkhole?"

"No, sheila, it's a leveller," he answered and a second later a flap above them flipped down. It had the sketch of an egg cracking open and the words 'PASSWORD' flying out of out.

And when Tooth looked at him for wide-eyed clarification, the green-eyed brunette narrowed his eyes and looked down.

_"Bottoms up_."

Suddenly, they felt like they were dropping as the platform lowered them deeper and deeper into the ground, pulling all the cold air away and out of their lungs.

As the light faded, Tooth squeezed herself tighter into Jack. The wind made their hair fly up.

"Don't pass out!" she cried and Jack pushed his cheek heavily into her hair to stop himself from falling sideways.

"I'm..." but he began to hyperventilate without control. Everything started to slow down as the rip in his shoulder and the burn in his lungs started to tear his insides.

'_Th-This bullet's a...it's a Nightmare d...a Nightmare design! I don't...And I can't leave her!'_

Jack felt her push her face into his chest and blood moved slightly.

He panicked.

"T...T'th, no! S-Stop!"

But his words fell on deaf ears as the wind whooshed them down. Jack suddenly began to see white spots against the black and all at once, Pitch's face and his words were suddenly fighting for dominance in his head.

Tooth clutched him tighter and he wanted her to let go since he was suddenly reminded of all the terrible things that happened to her since they'd met.

_'I can't go back to that, I can't! I...'_

He didn't want to see his blood on her hands or, dear god, her _face_ and it made him sick and dizzy as the ride began to slow.

Jack's heart began to beat wildly and his head started to burn.

Tooth realised he wasn't standing straight.

"Jack?" she called in the dark but he didn't respond and tried to pull himself up.

_"Jack?"_

When Aster pushed open a part of the circular hole they were standing in, Tooth pulled her head away from his chest to look up at him. Just as she did, Jack saw a bright light suddenly shine on one part of her face.

His blood was painted all over her face.

_'That's not mine! That can't be m–'_ And Jack finally couldn't take the excruciating pain.

He gasped out the last of his cold breath onto her face. The next thing Toothiana knew, his eyes rolled into the back of his head and his legs gave out from under him.

Aster turned in panic as she nearly fell, trying to hold him up under his arms.

"Ja...Jack! No! Open your eyes!"

She clutched a handful of his hair.

_"OPEN YOUR EYES!_"

...But he didn't.

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "Louder Than Thunder (Quiet Like Snow)" – The Devil Wears Prada


	24. Rabbits, Reasons, and Life Beneath Snow

**Omg sorry about my grammar/spelling mistakes last chapter *hides face* I'm embarrassed but haha I've fixed them for poor future souls. Love you always...****Now get ready.**

* * *

"**Sole and born creation. The lion's in the house. Flowers are up in the air. Crashing against the dark."**

"**Fire in the water...is the body of our love."**

* * *

"Quick, get 'im onto the table!"

"Jack!"

_Lub-dub. Lub-dub._

He started to cough up blood.

"JACK!"

"Put it in his mouth to soak up some of blood!"

_Lub-dub. Lub-dub._

"I doubt he's got a disability since he walked the entire way there. So that's good, no spine or neck damage...

"W-Wait! Wha d'you need that knife f–"

"I need to cut open his shirt!"

_Lub-dub. Lub-dub._

"O-Oh my god!"

"Go! In the shelf!"

Boots shuffled away quickly.

"I'll hold him down but you gotta inject North's anesthesia!"

"But I'm not–"

_Piiiiii-ciss!_

"Bugger that, princess! He's losing–"

_Lub-dub. Lub-dub._

"Argh! Get...Get 'im off m–"

"Jack, let go! Let...H-He can't hear us!"

"I-It's alright, sheila. I've got it."

_Lub-dub. Lub-dub._

"Princess!"

"I...I-I'm sorry!"

"Just listen to my voice and I'll guide you through it."

_Lub-dub. Lub-dub._

"I ain't gonna bail and neither are you, got it?"

"O-Okay..."

_Lub-dub. _

"Okay, I'm ready!"

"Pass me the forceps!_"_

_Lub-dub._

"'Please Jack..._Please!_"

"Whoa!"

Something loud clattered against the steel table.

_Lub-dub. Lub-dub._

"What is...Oy! The room's gettin' cold! What's he doing with his fi–"

"I-It's his center gene!"

"What?!"

_Lub-dub. Lub-dub._

"Jack? Jack, can you hear me!?"

_Lub-dub. Lub-dub._

_Lub-dub. Lub-dub._

"**JACK!**"

_Lub-dub...Lub-dub._

_...Lub-dub._

Silence.

"_Crikey..."_

_..._

Aster pulled away with his medical needle. He wiped a light layer of sweat from his head and leaned back against a counter. He removed his gloves, tossing them into a medical waste bin nearby, along with his mask.

Jack didn't have any internal damage. The bullet only ripped through his muscle tissue, avoiding his arteries so Aster managed to pull it out and sew him up. But still, even as he stared at the sleeping brunette with the bandages wrapped gently around his chest, he had to give the man kudos.

Normal gunshot victims went into trauma immediately after penetration, or straight after cavitations when the shockwave of the bullet ripped through. This guy however held on even after Pitch's laced bullet lodged itself into him.

He rubbed his stubble grimly and looked at Princess Thia.

"He's fine...He's gonna be alright."

She bit her lower lip again and blinked up at him with pink eyes.

"So he's...You mean he's not–"

"Naw, the mate's out, but you can hear the heartbeat."

"No, I ca–...I-I mean...I..."

Tooth stopped immediately.

She didn't want Aster to think the worst of her but his green eyes were understanding and sharp. He lifted a gloved finger to his large, almost-pointed ear. Tooth also quickly noticed the tattoos that inked his forearms before they disappeared into his sleeve.

"S'all right, sheila," he comforted gruffly. "These things can hear better than most. He's alive. Pulse is weak, but yeah, the bloke's still there."

And that was enough for Tooth.

Chucking her own gloves and mask, the princess exhaled a shaky breath. The moist air in the room started to cool down for a moment and she let it wash over her. Tooth then covered her eyes painfully, feeling the blood on her cheek dry over.

She was proud of what she'd done, but still distraught over everything that just happened.

Aster moved back to the sink and washed his hands. He'd gotten blood all over him in the sew-up _and_ the cleanup and he grimaced.

"He's..." he mumbled to himself. "He really _is_ a lost one..."

When Aster finished washing his hands, he turned around and caught Toothiana under his acid-green gaze.

"But the important thing is that he didn't do any harm to you, princess. So I'll give 'im credit for doin' right by you."

"He wouldn't do anything to me," she mumbled but the Aussie didn't hear it.

He'd paused for a moment before he shot Jack one more.

"Wait, hang on..."

Aster quickly moved around her to the shelf. As he rummaged through it, Toothiana moved the sink to wash her hands too. He heard him mumbled as she tried to ignore whose blood she was washing away.

"The bloke can't sleep well with those buggers in."

"What buggers?"

When Tooth finished and fully turned, her eyes widened.

Aster was holding a small weird plastic tool and was moving towards Jack's face with it.

"Wait!" she cried and rushed forward. "Stop! Wh-What is that–"

Tooth practically dove in between him and Jack to stop...whatever he was planning on doing!

Aster stopped and snapped his head up at her. They were almost a metre from each other until he frowned slightly.

He then pulled away to point at Jack's face.

"But, princess. Look," he gestured at the restlessness underneath Jack's pale eyelids. His dark lashes kept fluttering too and the Aussie moved in again.

"They're makin' 'im uncomfortable. So I gotta take them out."

"Take _what_ out? What are you–"

But Aster didn't wait and immediately leaned in closer to Jack's face. Carefully, he brought his set of 'plungers' close and after lifting one of Jack's eyelids, he set the apparatus over the eye.

Tooth didn't understand.

She didn't like it.

She wanted him to leave Jack alone.

"Stop it!"

But when she moved in to smack Aster away, she looked down briefly.

Her heart stopped.

She watched Jack's warm, maple brown iris she'd grown to love, suddenly lift away into the plunger.

She covered her mouth.

"His eye...H-His eye..."

Jack had been wearing colored contacts, _the whole time_, and hiding underneath it was his _real_ eye color.

A startling but powerful shade of arctic blue.

"It's blue..."

Jack's iris moved around subconsciously as he slept like a sapphire trapped in ice.

Tooth licked her dry lips and backed away slightly.

"I-It's...They're _blue..."_

Tooth couldn't believe it. But as Jack's pupil squinted slightly in the light and the greyish blue around it seemed to stretch and change color slightly, she had to...and she did.

Aster then pulled the plunger away and Jack's eye shut closed. He sighed slightly under his breath feeling the moisture return and Aster moved to pull out the other one.

When he was done, Aster moved away and set Jack's contacts in a safe case – it was identical to the one he'd carried in his police belt, the one Tooth thought had been a retainer. She almost couldn't swallow any of it, and it also didn't help that Jack's hair dye was starting to wear out the more he sweat through his fever. She bit her lower lip as more of his whites were starting to pepper through his hair.

When Aster snapped the case shut, Tooth looked back up at him with a large lump in her throat.

"H..." her voice was caught like sandpaper. "How did he wear them...f-for so long?"

Aster looked at her with a blank look.

It was obvious to him now that she hadn't known about it – but how would she? They were _supposed_ to look and act real. And since her little confession about his gene, he knew exactly where'd this guy had gotten them and further confirmed his suspicions.

Aster put the case on the counter and turned to her. He crossed his arms and glared down at Jack.

"They were designed for the agents," he explained, and hoped he didn't have to explain what 'agents' he was referring to. But Tooth didn't look confused or react to it so he continued on. "They were custom made to last months on end, to conceal their real identities."

When he didn't say who, Tooth wrung her wrists.

"So do you wear them? O-Or does North?"

Aster shook his head.

"Don't know about the Santa," he answered. "But I stopped wearin' mine long after we went down under."

Aster shot a quick look as if daring her to joke about that but he stopped. She wasn't even looking at him. Tooth was still wringing her thin wrists together and looking all around the room for answers to more questions she suddenly had.

'_So that's why he keeps rubbing his eyes,'_ she thought to herself. _'All this time, I thought he was just tired!'_

He bit the inside of his cheek, feeling suddenly terrible for watching her go through this all alone.

Aster instead went to look down at his shirt. He grimaced at the sight.

"Bloody hell," he muttered as he stared down at his top all covered in blood. He looked up at Toothiana briefly before he moved to grab his coat.

"I'm gonna change," Aster asked in his usual gruff, yet soft, tone. "I'll just be in the back room then I'll come back alright?"

Tooth looked at him and nodded.

"U-Uh sure."

"You want anything, or d'you need to change?"

But even when he scrunched his eyebrows worriedly, Tooth shook her head and pushed her hair behind her ears.

"N-No, A..." she stopped and took a shaky breath, "I-I'll be here when you get back."

Her soft and almost scared mumble made him paused at the door, but Aster nodded and exited the room. The second he did, he heard the sink go off.

...

Tooth washed her face so hard her cheeks turned red, and every time she flushed her eyes with water, she saw a flash of arctic blue and it made her fingers shake.

"Come on, Tooth...Come _on!_" She pulled out Bao's hair band stressfully and let her hair around her face.

Tooth moved on autopilot afterwards, moving around like a ghost in a daze and rubbing her eyes in stress. Without even realizing, she even moved back to Jack and started to wipe his neck with a wet cloth. Aster had cleaned all the blood off Jack's skin before he left, but on some unconscious level. Bright red and black where the bullet's poison had spread but it wasn't there anymore.

Tooth however seemed to think it was.

And while he stayed in complete slumber, it was so horrific to her.

Since she'd first met Jack, since the day he saved her, Tooth never _once _saw Jack passed out or asleep! Sure, he shut his eyes a couple times just to control his emotions (or test his patience with her), but he was always still awake when she fell asleep and already up when she awoke.

So seeing him like this for the first time, eyes shut, features relaxed, and unmoving...It was like Tooth didn't know him. And how could she, she never even knew he wore freaking contacts the whole time!

Toothiana dropped the cloth into the bucket and leaned over it. She looked down at her hands.

They were covered in his blood.

Tooth choked and dunked them in the bucket to wash it away.

She felt suddenly sick. Not because of the blood or the smell, no. She felt sick because she never hoped to see Jack like this. He was always so strong, dodging every hit, landing every first move, and so sure of his actions that she–

'_Stop it, Tooth!' _she berated herself. _'He's human, just like the rest of us. This was bound to happen eventually!'_

She pulled away and pressed the back of her wet hand to her eyes.

"But I really wish it didn't," she whispered and squeezed her eyes shut.

Tooth then tried to busy herself by cleaning the rest of Aster's materials and dried the stations. But after a while she ended up back at Jack's unconscious form, leaning forward and putting her head in both arms on the table.

She stared at him tirelessly.

"Can you hear me?" she whispered but Jack didn't answer.

"I'm right here...I'm...Jack, I'm right _here."_

He didn't move, didn't breathe, didn't do _anything_.

"Please, Jack...You helped me get back up so many times...Now I need to help you too."

"..."

"_Please._"

"_.._.H–H_..._"

Jack's lips parted and he took a shuttering breath. He gasped for air for a couple seconds and it was all Tooth could do not to jump up and scream.

"Jack? Jack, what's wrong!?"

Tooth looked all around him. Maybe he was uncomfortable, maybe a side effect from Pitch's bullet was–

She stopped.

The metal table directly under his palms started to chill over. Tooth watched his fingers flex gently and the moisture in the room dropped. As she watched, every time his fingertips hit the steel, the metal would fog over with a slight brush of frost.

Her eyes widened.

_'H-He can do that?'_

But suddenly Jack's breath started to settle down. He exhaled gently but didn't open his eyes. He was still in his comatose state but Tooth didn't care.

"W-Wait, what're you...WAIT!"

The wind went away and with it, so did his magic trick and all signs that he'd even moved.

She sighed angrily.

"You...Argh, dammit Jack, s-stop doing this to me!" she nearly cried and slapped him across the chest without thinking it.

When he jolted in pain slightly, she nearly leapt in the air.

_"Oh sorry! __Sorry!__"_ she whispered. _"I-I didn't..."_ And Tooth sighed, letting out a miserable chuckle.

When a shudder passed through her heart, she reached over and grasped his limp, warm hand.

Tooth sat like that for a while, holding onto him like her life depended on it. And call it awkward fascination or genuine concern, but Toothiana didn't blink.

She watched him breathe in and out slowly, staring at the way his chest rose and fell. Tooth couldn't even blush at the moment, didn't want to – she wasn't nervous when he was asleep and that helped her appreciate him more.

This was the only chance she'd get since he'd never let her get this close and that made her ache.

Jack's skin was smooth and his lips were thin. She liked his nose without really needing to explain why and found it neat that his eyebrows were darker than his hair. They were like black or dark brown but had white creeping through them like frost. And when she went really close, she noticed that he had the tiniest dot or beauty mark sitting right up to the edge of his left eye. He also had a faint scar near his temple and there was one permanent frown line on his forehead that would probably never go away.

All these things were so insignificant, so pointless...yet now she knew them and couldn't help but be happy that she did. Even memorising the swirl and striking pattern of his brown hair was interesting to her as she traced it tiredly.

But how awkward would this be, if he woke up, and saw her basically probing him?

He'd probably call her a creep and tell her to take ten thousand steps back.

And Tooth surprisingly laughed to herself because she knew he would.

Her heart hurt more with each heart beat she felt, and every rise of his chest she could see. She then looked at him as she whispered with a smirk.

"God, Jack. You carry me thirty thousand miles across the world with you, get shot, and undergo military surgery by an Australian who makes holes in the ground with his fingers. I really _do_ put you through shit."

She chuckled sadly before the sting in her eyes came back and she shut them tightly.

"I'm _so_ sorry..."

Without even thinking, without even needing to, Tooth leaned up.

And for the first time, she pressed her lips to his cheek.

It sparked electricity in her skin and she lingered for a while, just enjoying how cool his skin was under her touch.

When she pulled away slightly, she grinned sadly despite her aching heart.

Tooth shook her head slowly, letting some of her hair fall down to tickle Jack's face. But he didn't react and for that, she was grateful.

A part of her even wanted to lean down and do it again...

But...

"I-I wa...but...but I know I shouldn't,_" _Tooth whispered.

Instead, she lifted her head slightly and pressed it against his forehead, staring at his face as she did.

"You deserve better than a geek, than a princess freak like me. _You deserve better than all of this."_

And she really meant it. After this was all over, she didn't care what it took. If Jack wanted to settle down and start a new life, she'd offer him money, a clear on his name, a search for his family,_ anything _to give him back the life he was taken from.

And Tooth closed her eyes completely and sighed a peppermint breath onto his face.

When she finally pulled away, her entire body felt like it would collapse.

She didn't notice Jack's fingers twitch.

...

Tooth looked out nervously but Aster was nowhere in sight.

Silently, she shut the door behind her and sneak-walked into the main room. Jack needed rest and she was thankful that so far, he was okay. But while she wanted to stay with him more than anything, they needed answers. So with a steady breath and tight fists, Toothiana slinked around the large circular room and its low ceiling.

She stepped on her heel gently to stop her boot from clunking on the concrete floor. She then rolled gently on her toes the way Jack did – so far it seemed to work.

The Warren was unlike anything she'd ever seen... It reminded her of a circular, underground greenhouse! She smelt (apart from Jack's blood) this very earthy aroma that floated around the place. It was weird though for such a thing in the middle of Buffalo _during winter_ to smell so fresh and open. It was also very warm inside, too warm, and she bit her lip – it was probably always like this thanks to the potted plants everywhere. So all-in-all, it was like a man-made forest.

Still, it reminded her of the rainforests back on Punjam, so it was almost calming.

_Almost._

Tooth felt sweat drip down her temple anxiously.

She decided to walk to the only door open. A light poured onto the concrete floor from inside and when she was close, she pressed herself to the wall beside it. She slipped out her gun from its holster.

_'Okay Tooth_. _Just peek in, you __need__ to...He would do it for you.'_

After taking a shaky glance around the main room for Aster, she craned her neck around the door.

What she saw made her mouth fall open and her pink eyes wide.

Nobody was in the room. It was empty and small but to her, it was incredible.

It was a legit master computer room!

Compared to the rest of the old, simplistic style of the Warren, this room had a lot of love put into it. The computer setup was highly advanced and organized.

Tooth moved in slowly and while she tightened her grip on her Taurus rifle, her mind was wrapped around all the neat gadgets and screens.

There were three keyboards and at least ten monitors of different sizes surrounding the semi-circle of the room. His chair gave him easy access to all and while the wires weaved themselves in and around each other and under her feet, Tooth knew this room probably had the potential to hack three countries' governments at once! She didn't know how, but she just had a feeling.

Maybe it was also because of the massive supercomputers sitting like giant bodyguards against the back walls.

As she moved closer, she squinted at the screens. Several of them were on standby and the initials EA floated across the screen. She frowned.

What did that stand for?

"Princess?"

Tooth sprung away faster than she'd ever moved. She literally pressed up against the wall, trying to look innocent, but Aster raised an eyebrow,

"You okay?" he asked and she peeled herself off the wall.

"Uh, y-yeah?"

Tooth fought hard to bring down the blush climbing on her cheeks and up her neck. She sent the room a dubious stare pretending like it was its fault that she ended up there. But Aster caught it and jerked a thumb out back into the main room of the Warren.

"There's more space out here to breathe. Plus, I think we should let the bloke sleep."

He didn't immediately expect her to agree so quickly but by the time he turned, she was already behind him.

"Sorry," she mumbled loudly and quickly re-holstered her gun before he could see it. But he already had and suddenly felt awkward with her walking behind him.

As they walked, Toothiana watched the way Aster carried himself. His tall, confident posture was more rigid than Jack's 'I-don't-give-a-shit' one. Aster's was more of an 'I'm-always-on-duty' sort of saunter with the way his shoulder rolled with his careful footing. It reminded her of the guards back at the palace.

Instantly, Tooth frowned and felt her heart patter in her chest again.

'_What I wouldn't give to see even them again!' _

Sometimes the palace guards were funny and cheeky just like her sisters, but always ready to protect and look out for everyone. Tooth shook her head nervously.

Aster's tall form moved guided her to the small eating area where the low ceilings continued to deceive her. The bunker was made to look tiny, yet its eye tricks were able to fit the six-foot Australian no problem.

She was honestly confused but didn't comment as Aster sat on a bar stool adjacent to her. For a moment, neither said anything, awkward and unsure of what to talk about.

Tooth played with her skirt and tried to look around the room while Aster sighed under his nose and glared at a rusty bolt he was rolling on the table with his finger. They both looked at each other at the same time and Tooth flicked her gaze away while the Aussie did the same.

"How long would that wound usually take to heal?" Tooth mumbled and Aster finally looked back at her. He wore an apologetic look on his face.

"For normal people, anywhere from 12-18 hours. But for a GUARDIAN agent, he'll be up in 7-9."

Tooth's voice caught in her throat. She blinked hopefully.

"S-So you believe he's a–"

"Only cuz you say so, sheila," he pointed out and she nodded.

"Right," she mumbled. "A-And I'm sorry about pulling my gun on you earlier. I didn't mean to be so...so brash. But...well, I've been on the run for days and everyone is starting to look like...different."

When she looked down at the table in shame, Aster frowned.

"He taught you that?"

Tooth shrugged and pushed her hair behind her ear. When he saw her feathered earring, the six-foot ebony-haired man and sighed.

"Well, I don't like it. But just...just be careful," he muttered softly. Tooth blinked and looked up at him.

He wasn't going to judge her?

Tooth opened her mouth to ask but she stopped halfway. Looking at his expression and the way this conversation was going, she realised while Aster was a man of few words like Jack (like most spies actually, now that she'd met enough of them), she didn't need to pry him like she needed to with Jack.

Aster told her enough and by his expressions she could sorta tell what he was thinking. She figured her silence while he spoke and her actions were better communicated.

Aster sighed and she began to bounce her knee nervously under the table.

"H-How did you know we were there?" Tooth asked and Aster immediately got up and walked back into the room he'd changed in. He came back out with his fur-lined coat and pulled out a disc from one of the large pockets.

"Got an 'easter egg' in this dvd from an ELF I correspond with in Manhattan," he explained and Tooth nodded. She knew what an 'easter egg' was. It was a quick or coded message at the end of the disc that you had to watch or listen for, sometimes long after the movie ended.

Aster continued.

"It told me another GUARDIAN was coming with the **tooth**. But I haven't seen another one since North."

He sighed and chucked the disc on the counter.

"It's been a while," he grunted and sat back down. "So I was suspicious of the mate when I saw 'im with you."

"That's okay I understand," Tooth replied and she watched him pull the rusty bolt to him again and twist it in his fingers. He glared at it as he spoke.

"How did the kid remember?"

But Tooth frowned and stared at the bolt.

"He...He hasn't," she felt guilty about telling Jack's secret to a still-complete stranger but her mind was tired, her heart was hurting, and her coat was still in the other room so she had nothing to chew again after she swallowed her gum.

But Aster noticed her tense posture and got up. When he came back, he filled a glass of water, letting her watch him do it from the sink so she wouldn't get suspicious. She thanked him mutely and took a grateful sip while he leaned against the counter.

"I used to be like him," he finally admitted and crossed his toned arms. "I woke up alone and confused with my memories mashed up."

Tooth almost spit her water out.

"Y-Y...You did? Wait, do all GUARDIANS wake up like you g..." she coughed slightly and he looked at her worriedly. Aster tightened his fist in his crossed arms.

"Yeah. That's what the company did to GUARDIAN agents...But I'm okay now."

"How?" she asked hopefully and Aster looked at her.

"North. After I woke up, I was confused but unlike the others who wandered off, I knew where to go. North and I were buddies before the place shutdown. But one of the few things I remembered was him telling me that if I ever lost my way, I should find him."

Toothiana said nothing and rolled her lips inwards to squeeze them gently. Although Aster's face was taut and serious, she noticed how alight his green eyes were as he spoke.

"I had a lot of hope in the guy," he continued and his sharp edges began to lessen. "So I searched. Every city, every database, every man I could track with the skills I still had."

He shrugged.

"Then I found 'im, under the same name too...SANTACLAUS, that bloody show pony. And he helped me remember who I was."

"Wow..."

Tooth's eyes were wide and her tight grip around the glass slowly relaxed.

"He helped you."

Aster nodded. "And now I help _him. _I use my computer skills as a hacker to infiltrate sites and databases for his ELFs."

"You do?"

"Yeah, I...well, here follow me," Aster pushed himself off the counter and beckoned her to follow him back into the other room. As they re-entered the room, Aster tapped another door inside it with his boot and it opened on command. Inside a light turned on automatically and Tooth's eyes drank in the sights of different gadgets he was still calibrating and more monitors listing out data from various ELFs he was corresponding with around the world. They were sending him updates and information about things his computer would automatically store into their respective files.

It blew her mind away and she did a complete 360 and took in the room.

"So this...being able to do all of this...Is this what the gene also gave you? Like, high-intelligence?"

Aster smirked and shook his head.

"No, sheila. I've always been naturally gifted with computer skills but the agent training did enhance it. I was a tech analyst for the company. Thanks to them, I'm able to hack into any computer device."

But he appreciated someone (especially a woman) complimenting him on his skill since he hadn't been reminded of his potential in so long – people in the spy occupation never had time to appreciate others, let alone themselves.

He then walked back into the computer room.

Tooth followed and watched as he moved over to the computers. When he touched a mouse, all the screensavers disappeared and went back to his homepage with a fluorescent kangaroo as his background.

"Most of the algorithms and programs I developed haven't even been properly created by few people. Like check out these beauties."

And Tooth watched him pull out the same ring and complink that North had given Jack. Aster smiled down at them like two little treasures.

"Created these all myself and so far, North's buddies have been able to slip in and out of some of the best headquarters undetected."

Tooth leaned down and cooed slightly.

She'd already seen them but to see this guy – tall, gruff, and so serious minutes ago – get all soft about his inventions, made her a little mushy.

When he put them back in his pocket, Aster sat in his computer chair and put on his sleek frames. He began to start up some programs again as Tooth peeked in from behind.

"So...you're basically a hacker?" she asked, just wanting to hear him say it. And Aster nodded quickly, fingers flying across two keyboards simultaneously to get some information back out to some ELFs.

"Pretty much," he muttered softly.

Suddenly it clicked in her brain.

"EA..." she mumbled and grabbed the top of his computer chair, jumping on her boots. "EA! Oh my _god!"_

"Crikey!" Aster jumped slightly and spun in his chair. "Oy, what happ–"

"ELECTRONICALPHA! That was _you!_ You gave Hue Dunbroch that ElectronicAlpha Status-Type Existence Rewriter Egg!"

Aster gawked at her and craned his neck up.

"Y-You remembered the acry–"

"And Jack's password for his bank account! It was you too. Wasn't it?" she gasped nearly out of breath when she stopped. The green-eyed hacker flit his eyes up at her one more time before he blinked down at his screens behind his sliver glasses.

"Uh, wh...well, yeah," he finally answered. "Mind you, that Irish bloke was a one-time thing! I don't wanna sell off to black market nuts anymore and I'm mostly involved in North's operations now. His agents need me and the information I can get them."

Tooth blew out a breath and it caused Aster turned up in his seat again and looked at her.

"What's wrong?"

She peeked down at him and moved around the chair. She leaned more towards the screen to stare at all the algorithms and messages he was sending between government databases and ELF codes.

And when she looked back down at him, she shot him a small smile for the first time.

"It's just...Wow," she teased lightly and Aster blinked. "You're like a mole or rabbit, just snooping and digging into other people's gardens and leaving tunnels for others to use."

And that caused him to chuckle and go back to his screen.

"I've been called that before."

As he continued to finish working on his programs, Tooth pulled back slightly. She visibly started to relax as it finally settled like warm oatmeal in her stomach – Aster _was_ a friend of North's. He really_ was_ a member in the Russian's fight against anti-terrorism, and if the computers and the data on them weren't enough, then the old stuffed rabbits hiding amongst the shelves and some photographs he had with North and Phil did the trick.

Her smile stayed on her face until he was finished his work.

...

_10 minutes later_

"So, why were you suspicious of Jack even though you'd been told he was a GUARDIAN?" Tooth asked once they were back in the eating area. Aster was rubbing his eyes and went to get an energy drink from the fridge.

When he grabbed one and closed it, Tooth had to avert her eyes.

There were at least a _hundred_ egg cartons inside! She didn't want to comment.

When he came back, the Aussie sat across from her and took a swig before he spoke.

"Like I said, princess. It's been a while since I heard another GUARDIAN showing up...Up until me, honestly."

Tooth gawked.

"S-Seriously?!" she stammered. That threw her completely off guard and tightened a fist in her skirt. Even Aster looked upset himself and stared down at a pot of flowers he'd recently set on the floor.

"I didn't know any other agents who had survived the defrag too, but now seeing _Jack_ here, I'm certain there are other agents still out there wandering around without purpose like he was...like I was."

Aster paused to take another drink and Tooth frowned openly. That word 'defrag' came back it sent cold dripping into her stomach again.

* * *

_"Defragmented..."_

_"De-what?"_

_"Memory wiped."_

* * *

"How many of there are you?" Tooth finally asked. Her breath was laced with anxiety.

"At one time..._hundreds_," Aster sighed, "But they all vanished once the company decommissioned us. I hoped they wouldn't have done something but I fear they might have...if the other agencies hadn't."

Tooth said nothing and let it sink as Aster got up to pace. He didn't like to sit when he was nervous and the old spy in him, the one that used to go out on reconnaissance missions, made him want to get up and do something with his legs.

Tooth watched his rigid posture continued to move back and forward.

His jaw was tightly clenched and his eyes were unwavering but she felt it. Underneath his entire headstrong attitude (which she was sure would butt heads with Jack once he got up), Aster was nervous.

He didn't hide it very well like Jack or maybe, Toothiana figured, she was just getting better at reading people. She always was good at looking out for other people's needs and right now, the Australian hacker with the blue-frosted tips and the shock of silver running down his hair was easier to read than even her handmaiden Tia.

Tooth whistled and Aster stopped pacing. When his tight face looked back at her, she smacked her lips and tapped the counter. He understood instantly and sighed.

Aster ran a hand through his short hair and walked back over. When he was sitting down, Tooth pushed his bottle to him. He took it gratefully and shot her a small smile.

"Thanks, sheila. I'm buggered." When he took a nervous swig, Tooth smiled – she liked being called a sheila.

"So," she tried again. "So is Aster your...your code name? Is that who you remembered yourself as when you woke up?" He shook his head. She caught on pretty fast.

"No, when I left the company, I remembered who I was. It was one of the memories I managed to hold onto."

After he put the bottle back down on the table, he lifted his gaze firmly to her cerise one.

"Real name's Edmund. Edmund Aster. And my codename was EASTERBUNNY. For erm, my hacking skills."

Tooth let out a tiny, breathy laugh. She tried to shut up instantly when she saw his face scowl at his drink but it finally made more sense – ElectronicAlpha was a pseudonym for his name.

"You can imagine why I don't go by either," he muttered but Tooth surprised him. She shrugged and when he looked up she smiled.

"I like Edmund," she offered warmly and Aster smiled back.

"Well then, you'd be the first," he chuckled and he wiped his forehead tiredly. When he did, Toothiana looked at his tattooed arms and the dark arm hair that crossed over it.

Very manly.

But then something nudged Tooth's curiosity and looked up at his face.

"Wait, if you knew who you were..." she almost afraid to continue when she watched his smile fall. But she did anyway. "...then why didn't you go home?"

"..."

Aster turned and chucked his empty bottle after he guzzled the last of the energy drink inside.

When he turned back, he folded both his arms on the table and glared down at it.

"I was a geeky ankle biter back in the bush. I loved takin' things apart and putting them back together. Tiny things, you know?" Aster then moved his hands around like he was holding something round and tiny. "They always fascinated me. But I came from a tough family...the rest of 'em were cops workin' the underground. Next thing I knew, they shipped me off to some computer camp for the summer and...

Tooth watched his eyes grow wide as he looked over her head.

"...they were gone. All of 'em. Even the little ones and I never knew why."

She felt a dry lump develop in her throat. So that explained it.

He was the last of his family. They ditched him and he had no one.

"Were you mad?" she softly muttered.

"What're you...Wh-No!"

Bunny took a double look at her, bridging on shocked and a little mad. But when he saw the sympathetic look on her face, his scrunched eyebrows instantly relaxed and he looked back down at the table.

"I-I mean, I was...any kid woulda been. I was mad for months, searchin' everywhere and everything I could on the web, and I got into lot of fights. It's why I'm built so..." and Tooth understood when he gestured to his muscled biceps. "I got into fitness real hard, to try to block it out...But I was never mad. Deep down...I knew. They did what they did because they were looking out for me, so I can't be mad."

Tooth said nothing and reached over and gently grasped his large hand in hers.

Images of Prime Minister Bangkot, Mr. Sandy, and the dreams of the tunnels behind the Hypunjam palace danced through her mind and she understood him completely.

_'They were looking for him...It was for his protection...Just like the scatter was for mine, and my sisters.'_

When she squeezed his hand, Aster looked up at her and gave a tender smile. He squeezed her tiny one back in his warm grip.

"Thanks, princess."

"Good thing you didn't lose your amazing teeth," she tried to joke and Aster actually chuckled.

"Ah yeah, I'm pretty proud of my choppers," he said and he got up to head over to a nearby cupboard. "But I've got a bit of an unhealthy obsession that might not go well with that one day."

And when he opened the cupboard to grab something, Tooth's mouth fell open.

The shelves was piled with chocolate!

"Are you crazy?!" she screeched and he jumped for the second time. The secret dental hygienist in her sprung up instantly.

"Oy! Keep it _down_," he cried for Jack's sake but she already moved around the table to point at the horrendous shelf.

"Do you know what all that'll do to your teeth?! You've got awesome teeth, Edmund, and you're risking_ cavities!_"

Once he grabbed a small bar and shut it, he turned to face her and raised both hands.

"It's not my fault this job is stressful!"

"Then choose a healthier alternative! You're living a thirteen-year-old's dream and I don't want to see you paying for it later!"

"Pr–"

"Put it_ down."_

"_Princess!"_

"_Put it dow–"_

Suddenly Tooth looked up at him worriedly. A second later, she pulled back.

Her concern was blinding and Aster lowered his hand with the snack. Realizing how shit-scared he suddenly was, she rubbed her arm shyly and looked away.

"Oh wow, uhm.." she mumbled. "I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have gotten in your face like that!"

'_Especially when he's a trained operative just like Jack! Dammit Tooth, he could've gotten all ninja on your ass!'_

Aster blinked and put the bar on the counter.

"Well...I could always try going back to carrot sticks," he offered gently.

Tooth looked up at him.

Did he just say carrots?

"And that's_ not_ because my codename's EASTERBUNNY," he warned but she was already laughing a little under her breath. "So don't get any ideas!"

"Too late!" Tooth chuckled softly and she smirked.

Aster looked at her for a second, wondering if this was the same girl who put a gun to his head about two hours ago. She clearly wasn't – this was the girl she really was, this was the princess.

Warm, cheeky, and smart as North had described. He smirked back.

"Besides," Tooth continued and wiped her nose as she walked back to the table to sit down again. "I don't even know why I'm judging you. I have an addiction to something too."

"Oh yeah?" Aster raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "What?"

Tooth paused for moment to rub her spy pants thoughtfully before she spared him a quick glance.

"Spearmint gum. I chew it more times a day than I can count."

"Oy, that has sugar in it too!" he pointed out but Tooth was quick like a whip.

"Yeah, but it's not dangerous. And it's_ good_ for your teeth."

"Yeah in _moderation!"_

"But so is chocolate!"

There was a pause.

Tooth and Aster both stared at each other for a moment before they laughed out aloud.

Aster shook his head and Tooth covered her eyes at her craziness. She really shouldn't be laughing when Jack was in the next room over still healing on his injuries. And while her heart twisted on itself, she felt good to laugh again.

It felt like centuries had passed since she had and she just really needed it. At least Aster was so comfortable to be around and she liked that she'd warmed up to him.

"Well, I guess we both have sweet tooths, huh?" he chuckled and she lifted her hands from her eyes. Tooth shrugged and looked at the counter to avoid his intense stare suddenly.

"Y-Yeah, I guess so," she mumbled loudly and pushed her hair behind her ear again. She felt his stare on her again and suddenly felt uncomfortable. But Tooth pushed the thought down and looked at his fridge.

Then something went off in her head again. She turned to Aster and pointed at the fridge.

"But, what about your other addiction?" she asked and Aster paused for a second.

He raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"All those eggs in your fridge? Don't you think that's a bit much? Or are you on some 5000-calorie diet or something?"

"What are y–Oh! Oh," Aster stopped and chuckled. He shook his head and walked around the table to the fridge.

"No, I don't eat these eggs," he said and opened the fridge to pull out a carton. "I train with them."

Tooth blinked.

"Huh?"

When Aster came back to the table, he sat across from her again and opened the carton and put two on the table. As Tooth looked at them dubiously, he started to explain.

"You've seen my gene, sheila. It's messy, I have to wear gloves in public in case I touch anything by accident."

Tooth looked up at him.

"W-Why?"

Aster looked down at his fingertips.

"Because I create fissures if I'm not careful. It's why I can't really get close to...Well, watch."

And Tooth looked down again as Aster rolled one egg to a corner away from them. He then looked back at her.

"If I don't pay attention and let the gene takeover, I can crack any surface I want."

And when he touched the egg without a thought, it exploded under his hand. Tooth yelped as the egg shell pieces flew everywhere and the yolk splattered under his palm.

"That happens more time than I'd like," he grumbled and he glared darkly at the broken egg. "So even after all these years of having it, I still have to keep practising."

He then wiped his hand and went for a second egg. But when Tooth went to stop him, her voice caught in her throat and blinked. Aster picked up the second one with any explosion, without any problem whatsoever.

"H...How do you do it?" she asked in wonder.

"I look at the egg," Aster mumbled and he held the egg delicately like a child in his long, fingers. It was cold under his touch.

"Then, I breathe and I...let the gene go slowly."

Tooth's eyes widened and she watched slowly,

Under Aster's fingers, tiny cracks started to appear on the surface of the egg. They were light and trailed down like something was painting them on tensely and she was amazed that the cracks weren't so deep that they pierced through to the yolk.

"Holy crap..." she whispered. She leaned in closer to watch the egg crack. "Wow that is _so _cool!"

He looked at her with a brief smile before he squeezed it lightly. Then the cracks stopped and he handed it over to Tooth.

She cooed and stared down at the egg in her palm before she cupped it close to her chest. She mumbled and looked at the other eight still in the carton.

"Every day you have to practice?"

Aster nodded with a grim look.

"Won't believe how many keyboards I fry if I don't," he answered and got up to stretch.

"But the damage you caused back at the airport! You can make your gene do that? Y-You can make sinkholes with it?"

As she asked, she looked down at the egg and realised that it was starting to decompress from the inside and the top of it started to sink inwards. She frowned and looked back at him for an answer.

But Aster said nothing and rubbed his head. "Hey, I don't know all the reasons why either, sheila," he spoke in a low tone. "I just do what I do. At my strongest I make them, and it's how I got you and Jack outta there, remember?"

"Yeah," she mumbled. "I guess you're right."

Otherwise she and Jack would've been...

Tooth bit her lip and stared at the egg again. It reminded her of their lives – once perfect, but now paved over with zigzagging problems they couldn't fix, and it threatened to crush them from the inside-out.

And Tooth sighed.

She looked at the other eight eggs in the carton, still waiting to be practiced with by Aster.

Still waiting to be experimented on...like her eight sisters.

...

After that, Tooth talked about Pitch and her missing sisters. Aster revealed to her that he'd been entrusted with a tooth box by North. But while he was always up for a challenge when it came to puzzles, something about its contents disturbed him and he didn't bother to touch it again.

"At least I didn't..." he mumbled. "Until tonight."

And when she asked to see it, he gave it over willingly.

Remembering how Jack opened it, Tooth tried and got the case to open. When it did, she nearly cried when she saw more of her beloved photos being used as tiles again.

Tooth went through the photos, not even wanting to put it together until she found the one piece that mattered.

When she did, she found the title of the diagram.

_**BABY TOOTH 05**_

And after she pulled all the photos out and read the back, she knew.

_**01 – Tatiana, Siamese fireback (X)  
02 – Tia, Redwing (X)  
03 – Tiana, European robin (X)  
04 – Tina, Motmot  
05 – Tuhina, Barn swallow  
06 – Tulia, Andean condor (X)  
07 – Theena, Blue crane  
08 – Tiati, Kiwi **_

"Tuhi..." Tooth mumbled and shut her eyes.

"I read the back once," Aster mumbled as he came up behind her. He pointed at the words beside each handmaiden's–_clone's_ name.

"They're national birds. So wherever your sisters are hiding, they're probably in wherever each bird represents."

But Tooth wasn't really hearing. She nodded her head but her mind felt like it was leagues away.

"What does Pitch want with you?" she mumbled terrified.

North had different intentions of keeping the girls' information. Safety, keeping records of their clone growth...but why did Pitch want them? Why _now_, when he had all these years before to take them?

She gritted her teeth.

_'No! Don't think like that!'_

Instead, she gulped and looked back up at Aster forlornly. Maybe he'd have answers to the questions suddenly tugging at her heart, especially since he knew where and who he was, unlike Jack.

"E...Edmund?"

Aster looked down at her with wide eyes, but she didn't notice.

"D...Do you know why your company was cl...was cloning me?"

He paused but when she urged him, he frowned sadly. It did nothing to help her lonely, breaking heart – not one bit.

"I didn't, princess," he mumbled. "Not until what you'd just told me and what I finally understand from that gizzard."

"T-That's okay...but can I ask?" she spoke up again when it looked like he was ready to head back to his room. Aster turned to look at her. Toothiana had her body twisted in the chair and was staring at him with wide, pleading eyes. All the case's photos were strewn on the table.

"Wh...Who created the GUARDIAN program?"

And for once, Aster didn't have a clear cut answer. He looked around the room like it suddenly haunted him.

"All I knew, Thia, was his codename," he spoke in a gentle voice. "And that's what we all knew him by, nothin' else. And if Jack could, he'd tell you the same."

She frowned sadly as Aster looked at Jack's door before he looked at her.

"It was TSARLUNAR."

Tooth bit her lip.

The name was unfamiliar but the way he said it, revealed years of underlying hate, or a fear at ever mentioning it again.

Whoever the guy was, he clearly left a scar on Aster and Tooth realised, that maybe he'd left a scar on all the GUARDIAN agents too.

An unsteady silence followed afterwards.

Aster eventually put the egg carton away and led Tooth to a door beside Jack's room where she could rest. He wished he could stay and talk with her more since she was like a breath of fresh of air to his life – but the ELFs still needed him and he had more programs to run.

When he opened the door for her, there was a small bed and a standard PC (he saved for emergencies) ready. There was also an adjacent door inside that led back into the medical room.

"And don't worry, sheila, it's untraceable," he said as she stepped in. "I made sure any site it logs onto is ghost encrypted so Pitch, the governments, or zip, can't see you get in or out."

"For real?"

"Oy, I'm the best for a reason," he smirked and before he left, he bowed quickly. "I'll get your bags from the car, princess. And if you need me, I'll be in and around at my desk."

"O-Okay," Tooth assured him but before he shut the door, she looked back at him.

Aster paused and his eyebrows rose curiously.

"What?"

Tooth smiled warmly.

"Merry Christmas, Edmund." And when she curtsied shyly, it made his heart flutter.

He smiled back.

"You too, Thia."

And he shut the door.

...

Tooth was on her email accounts and her favourite sites in a flash.

She made sure she was up to date with everything, especially with Punjam's newspaper _Hummingbird_ page, but she otherwise didn't leave any comments or any trace that she was there.

But after a few minutes, she grew bored and almost depressed. Here she was doing one of the things she used to do all the time and...she couldn't enjoy it anymore.

She didn't feel like herself.

Tooth felt like she was doing the actions of a girl who once lived before her and she couldn't stomach that. So she shut down the computer and plopped back down on the bed, inhaling the earthy, moist scent of the Warren around her.

Everything was different now. The people, her thoughts...hell, even her fingers twitched differently as she laid there. They were flexing while she thought deeply.

Just like Jack's.

Tooth sat up.

Rubbing an eye, she looked around the room and sighed. It was weird not being around him after _being around him_ for so long. It almost felt empty.

With a glance at the door Aster closed, Tooth got up and went around the bed to the other door. She unlocked it and peeked into the medical room.

Jack was still there, lying unconscious on the table.

Tooth moved forward to him on shaky knees. Was he...were they...still okay?

And with a nervous breath, she leaned down over his heart to listen.

_Lub-dub...Lub-dub... Lub-dub...Lub-dub._

She dropped her face onto his chest exhaustively. She blinked back the wetness in her eyes.

"I'm not leaving you behind, Jack," she mumbled and closed her eyes. "So don't you quit on me."

At least he was still there – annoying, a fighter, and strong.

And when she took in Jack's natural scent, crisp and light with something that was distinctly _him_, she couldn't be more thankful.

But then Tooth frowned as she thought about her earlier kiss.

She had wanted to do that for _so long_...but did it even matter?

Jack hadn't even moved! He hadn't even twitched! He wouldn't even remember what she'd just did!

Tooth pulled away and felt a little piece of herself shift inside. Her mouth became dry.

He wouldn't even remember what she _could_ do.

Tooth turned her head sideways and stared silently at the door. Aster hadn't come back and it sounded like he wouldn't be for a while. She bit her lip and looked back at Jack.

Her eyes widened slightly, pupils dilating, and her hands grew sweaty.

_'He would never remember,'_ she assured herself and Tooth threw and arm across his torso to steady herself on the table. She then moved her face in line with his. Jack's face remained asleep and stress free and it made her heart beat like a drum.

When would she ever see his face like this again? He'd made it clear several times that he wasn't interested.

_'You don't even know if he's got someone!' _she scolded herself and that made her heart crumple. _'So why wait for nothing? It's not like he's ever looked at you or...or __wanted__ to kiss you all those times you flung yourself on him! Pathetic, Tooth...'_

...But oh, if she only **knew.**

_Lub-dub._

Tooth continued to stare him sadly as she hovered over him.

_Lub-dub._

It wasn't fair, he _always _took her breath away. Even now in his vegetable state, Jack Frost was wrapping Princess Toothiana around his finger and he didn't even know it.

_'He'd never know,'_ she thought to herself one last time.

Tooth leaned her head down, inching closer to his lips.

She prayed he wouldn't wake up and catch this...But another part of her, the other part that threatened to consume her each and every hour, wanted him to feel it.

_Lub-dub...Lub-dub._

She wanted Jack to feel her deep in the cesspools of his slumber and wake up – wake up and push back, and rake his hands through her hair...but isn't that what all girls wanted?

But god, it was so hard! He was all she had left...He represented everything worth fighting for right now and she _hated_ that for all he did for her – the work, the fights...his _comfort_ – she couldn't give anything back in the same sentiment!

Tooth stopped just a centimeter of the way there and shut her eyes.

...Should she?

...What would it even feel like...?

_Lub-dub._

It would just be a secret, thank you, Princess-Peach-sort-of kiss. N...Nothing more.

_Lub-dub._

She held her breath leaning over his face.

Lub-dub.

It was now or never.

_Lub-dub._

_'And I choose now.'_

_...Lub-dub._

So Tooth lowered herself...and pressed her lips innocently to his.

She froze slightly.

Jack's lips were cool and soft and she almost pulled away in shock when that electrical current...no, that electrical _wave_ passed through her again.

Tooth nearly fell over in the way the feeling washed over her. The feeling it was...it wasn't how a regular kiss should feel, _especially_ with someone who was unconscious and yet...

Her heart was pounding, the tingling wouldn't stop, and she wanted _more_...until she started feeling incredibly awkward.

Tooth stopped pressing her kiss onto Jack. She felt as if she were committing necrophilia or something and she decided to pull away.

The plush of her mouth slowly lifted from his, and Tooth felt two parts of her heart ache dangerously – the part that would be forever upset knowing this was the only chance she'd ever get to touch him like this again...and the part that was breathless, just breathlessly happy.

Toothiana kept her eyes closed the higher she rose away from Jack.

_"Thank you..."_ she breathed and a sad chuckle puffed onto his face.

She'd keep this memory, this feeling in her heart for as long as she lived. And maybe one day, the day when she could finally get over Jack, she'd have the chance to feel like this again with someone e–

Like a rush of fire, Jack pushed his lips up to catch hers.

She froze.

_'W...What?'_

Tooth opened her eyes slightly and found Jack's eyes, his blue orbs peeking out slowly from under his eyelids. There was something untidy and illustrious about his gaze.

_'J...'_

In the dimly lit room, they took her breath away, sent her over the edge.

_'He...He...'_

He didn't say anything but he continued to chase her. Her skin flushed spreading across her skin, her entire chest.

Her vision flickered.

Her lips quivered.

And...

No, Tooth couldn't take it.

Not anymore.

Nervously, she lifted her hands to place on his chest – and she closed her eyes again and leaned down more firmly into the kiss.

It sent chills, goosebumps, hot flashes all at once running through her and she moved her hand on his good shoulder to steady herself.

When she exhaled through her nose, Jack shut his eyes longingly. He leaned up without restriction to push more against her mouth. His chest burned with pain but her touch numbed his senses and he raised himself up on the table with controlled ease. Soon Jack was sitting up on the table and leaning down to follow her lips as Tooth moved her head.

Their hearts matched in beat and when a deep energy passed between them, it made everything harder to control. Tooth moved her hand timidly around to his neck and placed the other on his arm. Her mind was fogging over, she wasn't even sure it was real, but she trailed her fingers up his skin like lightning rods.

And when her fingers brushed against the nape of his neck, Jack didn't wait.

He couldn't.

Quickly, Jack lifted his hands. He wrapped one around her waist to bring her closer and pushed the other one up to her neck. When she angled more into him, he broke the kiss for a breath then leaned down again.

And Tooth shuddered under the weight of his hold.

For a moment, she thought he'd consume her and Tooth felt her heart explode in her chest. Jack's mouth moved over hers in a way that drowned her and set her on fire at the same time.

She wasn't prepared for it. She didn't see it coming. But god...

Tooth gasped out of the kiss when he suddenly bent her head back.

And she stood there, angled under him, frozen and stunned. Her lips were flushed and she could barely breathe.

But when Tooth finally opened her eyes and looked up at him...Jack was looking down in a daze.

His eyelids were floating halfway over his vision and his gaze was muddled, unseeing.

_"T...Toothi..._" he mumbled under his breath.

Jack's eyes then shut resignedly...

_Lub-dub._

Tooth's eyes snapped open with a heavy blush.

Jack's face was still close to hers and his eyes were still shut.

Oh boy.

What a fantasy _that_ would be...but it was just that, a_ fantasy._

And as much as she wanted it, wanted _him_, it would never be that way.

Tooth chuckled sadly.

She lowered her eyelids halfway and looked at his bandages. "No, I can't...I-I could never do that."

How much of a black widow would she be if she took advantage of him while he slept? He'd hate her forever and she'd hate herself.

That was unfair...and she couldn't believe she'd almost–

But then she saw Jack shift and when Tooth looked again...

...she watched as Jack fell away her...back down onto the table.

Her eyes widened. When did he move? She thought he was still lying down. She thought she was still leaning over him, preparing..._wasn't she?_

And something like a rip passed through her chest. It shook her to the core.

When he almost hit his head, Toothiana rushed forward and caught him gently. Then she eased him back into his rest and pulled away.

But her fingers were shaking and her heart became a jackhammer.

She hadn't been looking down at him still on the table...actually, HE had been looking down at _her._ Which meant he'd gotten up from the table and she was in too much of a daydreaming state to realize.

So did...Was that...

Tooth's face grew red hot and she swallowed a lump in her throat.

But when she did...she tasted him.

In the warmth that spread from the crown of her head to the tips of her toes, he was there on her lips.

He was _there._

So there was no denying it.

_It really happened._

"I...W-Wh..." Tooth stammered and moved her hands over her mouth.

"Did you..._What did you..."_

But for all his wispy hair, his light freckles, and his relaxed jaw line, Jack didn't move.

And Tooth didn't know what to do.

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "Fire in the Water" – Feist **Here is some dark, sexy Canadian feels.**


	25. Pushing The Boundaries

**Glad you all liked the kiss scene. But psh, you thought that was hot? That was nothing *wink* Haha now onward through the Green Arc...and thanks for all the pressure to update! Jeez lmao I'm burning my keyboard here but I'm glad you're enjoying it (: I still love getting up each morning with that itch to write/share this with you! ****But sorry this update WAS a bit late – it would've been uploaded since Tuesday but...I'm not even gonna bore you with the crap I went through. **Lol now let's get serious again. Enjoy! **And** don't worry lol the next chapter's much shorter. :3 Coming sooner, and thanx as always guys!

* * *

"**When you've loved and lost someone close to you, you know what it feels like to lose."**

* * *

Someone was crying.

_"Humph...H...H-Ha..."_

Tulia blinked past her blurred, purple eyes.

She was the second youngest of the four kidnapped and felt starved to death. They hadn't fed her since she'd arrived two nights earlier and when she moved slightly, everything ached.

Tiana was lying on the other metal table next her breathing heavily. She was still trying to understand what was happening because she'd just arrived.

Tiana turned her head to the younger sister.

"T...Tu..."

The younger handmaiden made a breathy gasp but nothing came out. Her throat was parched, her lips were cracked, and the sight made Tiana nearly cry out.

Is this what would happen to her in a few more hours? Is this...what happened to the other two?

Her tears leaked out.

She couldn't see which other two sisters were with them. All she knew was that they were laying on Tulia's other side – and that terrified her.

Tulia clenched her teeth when she heard Tiana sob quietly into her hospital gown.

She was known out of the eight sisters to be the most inventive, always thinking of ways to do something, especially for her more emotional sister Tiana. She had to think of a way to calm down the older handmaiden...but how?

Her right arm had been numb for hours but with an aggressive shove, Tulia managed to ease it towards the edge of the table. Tiana stopped crying for a moment when she heard the metal shift.

Looking over, she saw what Tulia was trying to do and scrunched her eyebrows.

_"C-Co...Come on, Tool,"_ she whispered urgently. She looked around quickly, making sure the vile men and women walking around in white lab coats weren't looking. Tiana then moved her left arm between their tables.

She wasn't as hungry or sedated as the others and held out her hand strongly, waiting for sister to reach it.

Tulia took a deep breath and continued to push her hand until it fell over the edge of the table. When it did, Tiana gasped desperately and stretched her fingers more.

_"I'm right here," _Tiana whispered and she nearly cried when her fingers touched Tulia's. The girl's small hand was cold and limp.

_"And we have each other...R-Remember Toothie's eggs?"_

Tulia nodded through blurred eyes but a second later her face scrunched in shame. She looked away.

Tiana bit her lip and looked up too.

The secret was out.

Now Toothie knew about all them and what they'd kept from her. And Uncle Ty was dead but the others didn't know it yet.

And the worst of it was that Tooth probably hated them now, and she was probably alone somewhere.

She felt her tears fell again as she squeezed her Tulia's hand.

"A...Are they going to take care us?" she whispered.

Suddenly–

_Slap!_

"**Don't touch her!**"

Tiana shrieked in pain when someone violently smacked their hands apart.

They'd come back again – the strange doctors!

Tulia whimpered loudly as they lifted her limp arm back onto the table but as they moved to Tiana, she tried to push them away.

There were so many hands, touching her shoulders and gripping her limbs. They kept leaving icy trails down her skin and all Tiana wanted to do was roll away. But they wouldn't have it, and as the multiple doctors kept trying to strap her hands down, she was reminded of that snake pit she and BT almost fell into back home.

She thrashed wildly.

_(Thai) "Mị̀! (no) NO!"_

But they didn't listen and restrained her. It made her cry more.

"M-My sister!_ I want my sister!"_

Tiana turned her head again to stare at Tulia. When she did however, she could do nothing as her heart raced and her eyes sprung tears.

Another doctor covered Tulia's mouth with a respirator. And when the little girl turned her wide-eyed stare at Tiana one last time...her eyes clouded over.

Her mouth then relaxed and she exhaled softly into the mask, going into a deep sleep.

"T...**TULIA!**"

_"Shut it up!"_ someone hissed.

The next thing she knew, they also covered her mouth before they continued their jobs.

And as her mind grew groggy and her eyes blurred out again, she watched as a doctor came near her with a long needle filled with faint yellow liquid.

Tiana then whimpered quietly into unconsciousness.

She wanted Tulia, she wanted the big fluffy clouds of Punjam Hy Loo. And like what Toothiana once wanted days earlier...she wanted home.

What she didn't know was that two hours later, Pitch Black would be standing at her bedside with a dark look dancing across his face.

He said nothing as he did the eerily calm action and the room which was normally filled with thirty, frantic scientists was deathly silent. They watched in cold fascination.

Pitch's silent presence though was a red flag to them. He had never shown up until today, and that meant they were doing something terribly wrong.

Not that they could blame him. For twenty-one years, Pitch had been working as a terrorist always cracking down on new chemical compounds to create. But this...this 'Center Gene' he kept rambling on about for months, was no doubt his greatest feat – and so far, no matter what they did to the mysterious clones he'd kidnapped, nothing was happening.

Without a sound, he pushed a lock of hair from her face. Pitch was careful not to touch her skin with his fingertips, but it was disturbingly like a father to a child and no one said a word.

"How many stimulants have you tried?" he finally asked. The tenor of his voice made their skin crawl.

One brave soul, a skinny scientist, took a step forward.

"Since the first? At least twenty-five," the man gulped and he shot Tatiana a look before he looked back at Pitch. He nearly jumped when Pitch stood nearly a foot from him. The terrorist only had an ounce of respect for his bravery before it vanished again like quicksand.

"And yet that gene...no matter what chemical, what _ingredient_ you pump into them...they haven't been affected by any affliction."

"The gene is so complex, sir. We can't even extract it yet! W-We found it but until they react and it activates–"

"And so far the only progress any of you have been able to provide me is that their health continues to be just like the princess–"

"But why do these little girls have a center?" he interrupted and the others immediately clammed up. They'd all mumbled the same thing but knew they could _never_ ask Pitch. And now this guy probably just signed all their death certificates.

"Why do we have to experiment on them? Why can't we just r-re-create a copy gene?!"

"..._Why?_"

Pitch suddenly took a step forward and grabbed him by the collar of his lab coat.

They all took a sharp inhale.

Pitch gripped the coat tightly, careful not to brush his ashen skin against the man's neck. He didn't want to risk waking up the handmaidens with the idiot's screaming.

As everyone looked on in silent fear, the Englishman easily lifted the scientist's entire body with one arm and carried him over the clones on the table. When he reached the table labelled _Baby Tooth 03_, he rammed the man's head into the table beside her restless, but pretty face.

"Do you _see _this face? _These eyes?"_ Pitch seethed and he used his other gloved hand to lift Tiana's eyelid to show her purple eye. "All of you, _do you?"_

Everyone remained tight-lipped, hearts shuttering, as he tightened his grip. The shadows in the room grew longer and air grew stale.

"Commit this girl's biology to memory, ladies and gentlemen, because it doesn't _exist_ anymore."

And in cold malice, Pitch lifted a finger just the slightest.

His ruefully grazed his dark fingernail against the man's neck and watched in satisfaction as it sent a flourish of activity to the scientist's fear cortex. The scientist cried out and tried to pull away when horrific images of things he hated and feared overran his senses. But Pitch covered his mouth.

"You'll wake up the girls, my friend," Pitch sneered. _"__**Control**__ yourself."_

But as he shivered violently, Pitch didn't let go. He instead pulled him over to Tatiana's table, shoving the whimpering worker beside BT's sleeping face.

"Whatever was left was of the Center Gene remains only in those who were infused with it. And after my earlier company disbanded and the agents fled, those who created it did not wish to continue and all the notes were destroyed. I've spent _years_ capturing GUARDIAN agents, trying to extract that gene and replicate it. But I've learned from past help, that they can't handle stimulants I've tried."

He gritted his teeth.

"And then I come across _this_ little discovery."

He glared down at Tat's face like a locked box without key.

"I find a center gene, not biologically infused or attached to the DNA, but _inside_ it. Growing _with_ these girls...and I imagine my surprise when I figure out why."

But when several eyebrows shot up, wanting more answers, Pitch ripped his hand away from the scientist.

He then turned and walked to one of their working tables in blind anger. The rest of the scientists cast a grim look at the man as he sat gasping onto the floor. He covered his eyes and clenched his teeth in a broken mess.

"That gene can never be re-created again," Pitch hissed. "So I must make do with what remains, through _extraction_ and _replication._ But since the original GUARDIANs were not capable of handling _either_–"

Pitch slammed the table with a violent _bang!_

"You lot better _hope_ you can break these girls. And _soon_," he growled. "My operation waits for _no man_, damned clones included. So lower the pH levels, administer higher concentrations, _think, _idiots! Because unless that gene exposes itself, you and the princess' little copies are all as good as **dead**."

And everyone cringed as Pitch raised his arms again, ready to tip the table over.

But–

"Haa-H..._A-Ah!"_

Everyone in the room fell silent and turned. Even Pitch stopped his tirade and spun around.

On table _Baby Tooth 06_, Theena, the youngest of the kidnapped, began to move violently in her sleep.

Several scientists rushed forward immediately and checked her.

As they prodded her and read out her stats, Theena cried out in pain and tried to roll away. She looked fine for the most part, but the arm they'd injected her with was turning white.

"It's the plant compound!"

"Body temperature's dropping!" one woman cried and pulled out a respirator.

"Nervous system is sporadic," another shouted. "Eugenol _is_ responsive! Quick, mark it down!"

"Plant her with a sedative or she'll go into shock!"

Pitch watched with wild, golden eyes. This was the first time any of the girls had even a remote reaction to any chemical.

_"Finally,"_ he seethed and as Theena writhed in pain and cried softly in her sleep, one of the scientists moved near him with furrowed eyebrows.

"Should we stop the treatment?" he asked meekly. "Her behaviour will make hard to get the tests do–"

"No," Pitch said eerily calm again. "Continue. If anything goes wrong, I have three extra copies in case she breaks. Remember?"

The shorter scientist said nothing and nodded. He didn't want to end up like his colleague who was still being helped off the floor. Pitch then turned around, no longer interested in the show ahead of him with Theena's reaction.

"Besides," he called as he left the room. "I'm looking forward to being delivered another four remember? And the special one is still on its way."

When he left the room, he passed the master control room where sixty Nightmares were handling communication reports.

He vaguely heard of a major disturbance at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport in New York and Nightmares who'd be dispatched to the scene immediately.

At least he could count on _these_ men to do their jobs in a timely matter.

Still, as Pitch heard the clone's cries fading away from the science lab, a small victorious smirk twisted itself onto his face.

...

_Christmas Eve, Buffalo, 9:37 pm_

Aster rolled his computer chair to the door and poked his head out of the computer room.

He heard a door click and watched as Toothiana stepped out of Jack's room. She looked upset and shaken but she didn't say anything. Instead she rushed over to the table and sat for a while. After a couple seconds, she began to busy herself with the photos from the tooth box.

Both his eyebrows rose instantly.

"Princess, what's wrong?"

Tooth snapped her head up and turned.

"Oh nothing Edmund...I-It's nothing!"

"Are you sure?"

"I-I don't want to bother you," she offered kindly. "It's okay...uh...I-I'm alright."

But Aster didn't buy it.

He waited five minutes before he got up and left the room to check on Jack.

Whatever happened in there made the warm girl he'd grown fond of vanish suddenly. He wondered if maybe the kid had coughed up blood...or lost an arm, so he silently moved past her and went in the room.

Once inside, he shut the door. Jack was still on the table, unconscious as ever and he looked fine.

So what made her freak out?

He leaned in close to catch Jack's face in the light.

When he did, Aster narrowed his eyes, catching his real hair color under the brown cover.

He wondered how many other GUARDIANs went through changes like they did...

...

Meanwhile, Jack was running.

He ran and ran, but his footfalls were heavy like lead, not at all nimble or silent.

He was chasing that little girl with the long, brown hair again.

**"Stop! Just **_**stop, **_**please! How d'you kn–"**

But when he raised his hand to trace her fleeting body, she ran into the sunlight again – like she always did.

When she vanished, Jack stopped to lean on his knees.

He panted for air he wasn't getting enough of and wiped his eyes.

Pulling his hand away however, his heart raced. He had his original skin colour back before...suddenly, a giant shadow cascaded over him.

Jack spun and glared down the length of it. It was shaped like Pitch Black.

He reached for his staff at his belt and stamped his boots harder against the forest floor. Extending the hook, he aimed for the shadowy head of Pitch's silhouette.

He got closer and closer. His heart raced and his grip tightened. And as he ran, he watched the fleeting images of ELF agents sprinting out of his vision.

But just before he was ready to let loose a powerful swing and a burst of wind–

A fiery-throated hummingbird flew out of the shadow and straight at him.

He froze.

Jack's eyes widened slightly and he lowered his staff.

**"W–"**

When he blinked, it vanished – but Toothiana was standing a few feet away.

"**T...Tooth?"**

He sprinted towards her.

**"Get away from him!"**

Jack didn't notice as Pitch's shadow suddenly split into five, faceless figures in business suits. They all had their hands placed behind their backs and were watching him with grave expressions.

Jack was too busy focusing though, on the princess as he rushed to her.

But when she lifted her head to stare at him, she looked like was about to pass out.

**"Tooth!"**

At the last possible second, Jack leaped forward and caught her around the middle. She slumped into him and he threw a foot back to steady himself.

He panted slightly.

**"Tooth, what's wrong?" **

She didn't answer.

**"Come on, look at me! What's wrong?!"**

His eyes were wide as she gripped his shoulder from underneath.

"_**Toothian–"**_

_**BANG!**_

Jack stopped instantly.

He stood on his feet and his mouth fell open. His staff fell at their feet.

When he looked up from the gun shot in his chest, he stared at Tooth desperately.

She was holding her gun steady in her right hand and the light smoke from the head told him that her shot was recent...and that it was intended for him.

Jack felt his eyebrows rise on his forehead**.**

"**T..."**

But even as he started to fall, she didn't move.

Instead, she let go of him and watched him fall away. Her tears slipped down her face.

The world slowed as Jack fell backwards and when the sky swallowed his vision, his heart beat wildly.

He thought any second his head would hit the hard earth below. He _waited_ for it.

Instead, when he finally fell back all the way, he felt himself plunge into a deep expanse of water.

Jack shut his eyes painfully as the rush of the whitewaters splashed over his face. The cold grip of the current dragged him under.

And he tried to fight it.

Jack wanted to swim upwards, back to the forest, back to Tooth. But when he looked up, everything that had been on the surface was gone.

To his horror, he wasn't thrashing, wasn't swimming...he wasn't even _moving._

Jack was just watching it, _letting it_, happen!

In his frozen state, his pale hands floated up on either side of him, Jack merely looked up at the blue lights. But he did nothing and grew sleepy.

It felt like he was floating in the middle of an ocean – a cold, unforgiving ocean that slowly started to crush his broken chest and battered heart.

_**"**__**...'y go?"**_

Jack squinted past the sunlight and watched as the rays changed to moonbeams. Once they did, he saw the blurred out faces of three people in labs coats.

**"_...'ares...ow..."_**

**"_...'re tes...s...oor boy..."_**

The woman who spoke leaned up from him and moved away. Jack then followed a man with a gruff voice but his face moved too fast for him to catch.

His eyelids started to grow heavy.

**"**_**Is it done?"**_

And when another man leaned down, Jack clenched his jaw.

He instantly felt the water rush past his teeth and into his lungs. And when he choked slightly, the first man came back into his vision and leaned closer.

Jack blinked the water out of his eyes. He saw a thick beard and the outline of glasses.

**"**_**Yes. This agent has bee-en properly d–...d –he i-is no longer-r..."**_

Suddenly, the man pushed a shadowy hand into the water to reach down for the brunette.

He caught the spy by a sleeve and pulled him up.

Jack felt himself float up closer to the light, he was almost out. He almost broke the surface and in a few more heartbeats, he'd see the man's face.

But something akin to rage started to boil in his chest.

Jack didn't want to be pulled back out...No, he suddenly wanted to drag the shadow in.

So in blind fury, Jack shot his hand up and reached past the surface and grabbed the man's neck–

...

His eyelids snapped open.

Jack's pupils shrunk in the light above him but the second he awoke, he grabbed Aster's collar in a vice-like grip.

"B-Bloody _hell!"_

His silver frames fell off his face when Jack shoved him away.

As he stumbled back from the table, Jack languidly slid off the table. A split second later however, he had his hand around Aster's neck again.

A sharp shock sparked where their skin touched but Jack didn't notice. His eyes were blank and cold, like steel.

"My ears are _not_ that big," he hissed darkly.

Aster blinked for a moment but he narrowed his eyes.

"G'day, _mate_," Aster spat.

When Jack didn't reply and tightened his grip, he raised an eyebrow.

"Is that supposed to scare me?"

_"No,"_ Jack growled. "It's supposed to demand your _attention_. And I think I'm doing a pretty damn good job of it."

He then bristled with frustration.

_"Where is she?"_

"She's out there," Aster muttered and nudged his head at the larger of the two doors adjacent to them. He turned back however and shot Jack a dark look.

"So is_ this_ how you've been running around with her?"

He wasn't asking Jack, he was _telling _him. When he watched the princess leave the room in a hurry, he figured Jack might've done something in his sleep – but this was uncalled for!

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" he spat.

"What I do is none of _your_ business, bucktooth."

Aster pulled away slightly, an angry vein visible on his forehead.

"Bu-Bu–Oy! I I do _not _have a–" Jack squeezed his grip around Aster's neck. He didn't say anything, keeping his mouth tight-lipped and his face blank.

But Aster didn't appreciate the assassination attempt and snarled.

"Lay _off!_ It's no wonder I saw 'er leave the room so shaken. You're a bloody time bomb just waitin' to blow!"

At the mention of Tooth's presence, Jack's grip on Aster's collar loosened slightly.

"So she was here?" he muttered and gave the floor around them a quick assessment in case Aster tried anything. It was unnecessary though since the green-eyed Aussie was too busy throwing a light tantrum to even want to.

He pictured the princess' face again when she left Jack's room. With a name and reputation like Jack Frost (along with already having met the violent brunette), he didn't have to guess that she was still afraid of him...and maybe only followed him in submission.

"Yes!" he scoffed darkly. "But I tell ya. Had I known y'get like this when you're alone with people, I woulda called North straight away and told him to transport her o–"

_**"Transport him out now!"**_

Jack jumped out of his skin.

He moved away from Aster so quickly, the older brunette thought something had pulled him from behind.

His eyebrows shot up.

"Oy, what's wrong with ya?" Aster mumbled in alert.

He watched in disturbed confusion as Jack's blue eyes gazed around the room.

Jack didn't answer.

When he came to, Jack blinked painfully and stared up at the Australian. The memory behind his eyes was dying away again, but the voice, the people leaning over him, the same scent of a hospital room...it all clouded his senses.

Jack's mouth fell slightly open and he flexed his fingers. Catching a slight breeze from a vent, he tugged the cold air into the room.

Old anxieties crept up as he stared at the medical apparatus and the steel hospital table beside him. And yet, while the wind brushed comfortably against his bare skin, Jack felt goosebumps appear and the hairs on his neck stand up – something he usually had control over.

"'Ey," Aster called and scowled deeper as he looked on.

Jack twisted his head slowly and caught own his eyes in the tiny, rectangular mirror across from him.

He froze.

He expected to see his old self – peach skin, bright eyes, brown hair – he prayed he would.

As Jack drank in his appearance though, his fingers twitched nervously.

His complexion was still pale, almost snowy-white and he hadn't realized how much of his brown hair was washing out. He looked older with all his whites showing under.

Jack suddenly gasped under his breath.

And those eyes...his real eyes...he–

There was a flash of pink eyes in the reflection.

Jack spun, his brown bangs whipping against his forehead.

But she wasn't there.

She wasn't _anywhere_.

Jack snapped his head at Aster's and the Aussie, who was normally unflappable, felt his skin shiver under Jack's dark and disturbed stare.

"...What did you see?" the hacker mumbled.

Jack however bared his teeth.

"What the _hell_ happened, cottontail?!" he growled.

...

Toothiana froze, dropping the Tuhina's photo.

The princess turned her head to the medical room.

Jack's voice...

Her heart beat wildly and a flush of energy ran down from her chest to her stomach.

_'He's awake, he's... "_

"H-He's awake!" she mumbled happily and clambered up from her chair. After she gathered up the photos and put them back in the tooth box, Tooth hastily put it in her pocket.

She then moved to the medical room.

Toothiana's breath exhaled shakily and she shivered, feeling a drop of adrenaline race through her. All her earlier anxiety washed away and like honey, a warmth spread across her skin.

She had all these questions, all these emotions, and so _help _Jack if he didn't tell her...Tooth's legs still felt like jelly at the thought but she rushed more to the closed door.

Her mouth open and ready to yell his name–

_'Whoa, hold it!'_

She screeched to a halt just short of the door – Jack wasn't alone yet! Edmund was still in there.

_'Jeez Tooth!' _she scolded herself. _'You almost ruined a perfectly dramatic opening!' _

She couldn't go in there and hug him like they did in the movies if they knew she was coming. She wanted to throw him off and surprise him...like he'd done to her.

But they sounded like they were in a heated discussion so she decided to wait.

Tooth bit her lip as a blush formed on her cheeks.

She'd bounce on her boots near the door until Aster came out _then_ she'd talk to Jack.

As she waited however, her smile was slowly slipping off her face.

She listened to their conversation.

...

"What d'ya think happened? You got shot by a Nightmare."

"I've been shot by worse," Jack snapped back. "But why–"

"Mate! It was laced."

His eyebrows furrowed together.

"I knew it..." he mumbled.

"But North's scientists found a secret antibody for tetrodoxin so I shot you with it."

And Jack immediately stopped.

His blood ran cold while his mouth tried to formulate words.

_"That's_ what Pitch was using? T..._TTX!?"_

"You know what it is?" Aster commented and Jack glared back at him.

"Of _course_ I do, Blizzard of '68 remember?" And Aster nodded grimly as he crossed his arms.

Jack ran his good hand through his hair.

"...and of _course_ Pitch would use it."

The terrorist was really starting to piss Jack off! Tetrodoxin was a neurotoxin that crept into your skin like poison. And it decreased your heartbeat, lowered your body temperature – not that_ that_ would do anything to Jack; his average temperature was already below 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

But it was still fatal – he remembered something about old assassination attempts and a terrorist long before Pitch who used the toxin to kill 68 people one winter just to prove a point to the Chinese government. Since then it was banned, but it still riled up the black market.

And that's what Pitch enjoyed: biological warfare, getting inside people (physically _and_ mentally) and destroying them from the inside out like a plague...like a nightmare.

_Bang!_

Aster didn't even flinch when Jack slammed his right fist against the medical bed.

As he did, both he and Aster missed Tooth rush into the room, panicking that something may have happened.

The door silently clicked shut when Aster uncrossed his arms. He eyed Jack with a stern look.

"You're lucky your body temperature was already pretty low, mate," Aster mumbled.

Jack flexed his fingers at the impact and rubbed his neck.

"Look, can you j–" he stopped.

When he finally looked up at the Aster, he saw Toothiana standing behind the Australian.

She dropped Jack's backpack on the floor.

Jack's eyebrows rose urgently.

"Toothiana?"

...

She'd fixed her hair and straightened her skirt a moment before she came in. But the second Tooth saw him, her hands began to shake and her smile slipped off her face. All her composure was gone.

Tooth's eyes grew wide.

"J...Jack?"

Jack's eyebrows rose worriedly, seeing her familiar face wash over him like a balm to his aches.

He opened his mouth as she took a step forward.

"A-Are you o–"

She stopped herself when she caught his blue eyes in a stare. This was the first time she'd seen them open since...

Since...

Her heart skipped a beat and she stumbled over her words.

"W...I..."

Jack frowned.

She wasn't running up to him like he thought she might...like a part of him _hoped_ she would. Instead, under his careful gaze, he saw her foot shift back to her slightly.

Dread pooled into his stomach.

"What is it?" he asked seriously.

He was all business, albeit a little concerned, but he was otherwise just...normal.

_Normal._

Like nothing bigger had happened.

Tooth blinked twice and moved her eyes to a spot behind him.

It was incredibly awkward with Aster in the room since she wasn't sure why'd she'd stopped – but it was _more_ awkward being unsure what to do since Jack's face didn't light up or his expression soften.

Instead, it grew darker, borderlining on demanding.

And she wasn't prepared for that.

Jack's forehead creased.

"What's wrong?"

"I...I..."

The taller brunette beat Jack to Tooth and took a step closer to her. As his silver streak of hair caught the light like the sheen off a knife, he stared vehemently.

"Answer the question, mate," Aster asked in a low tone.

Moving his gaze away from Tooth's, Jack eyed the Aussie suspiciously.

"About what?"

And what was with the guy's dark look that suddenly appeared when Toothiana came in the room?

Jack didn't like it. He'd been out for...for what, several hours? And the first thing he wakes up to is the lone freak living underground?

"When you were _cactus_," Aster explained. "I mean, did you remember moving? Seeing a face? Touching anything? Do you remember what you _did?_ What you were _doin'?_ Because things can happen in stasis, mate!"

Tooth gazed up at Aster from behind, her heart racing faster.

_'Things...w-what things?'_

She quickly whipped her head at Jack. No one noticed her take a tiny step forward or see how badly her fingers were twitching.

Jack's mouth became a tight line. He glared at the Australian in confusion.

"How could I?" he bit out. "I was out, remember?"

Tooth froze and stared up at Aster.

"You put me in a headlock, y'bugger! Who knows what else you were doin' and she–!"

"Will you shut up?!" Jack finally bit out. He ran a hand through his hair.

Aster flared up immediately.

"What?!"

"No! _No,_ I didn't do anything! I don't even remember the last ten fucking hours!_"_ Jack sighed angrily.

Tooth's heart stopped as Jack continued to glare at the floor.

But she...she was _there_. It happened.

Didn't it?

"Even if I did," he added, growling tiredly, "it must've been something pretty stupid."

"I'm just _askin'_ jeez!" Aster growled and crossed his arms again. "GUARDIANs do weird shit in comatose! I get ya can go on days without sleep like the rest of us. A twenty-minute power nap," he snapped his fingers, "Boom, yer good to go. But when GUARDIAN agents are out for more than _two hours_, we have less control over the physical world, and our bodies. And that thing y'do with the breeze, it channeled the energy away from your heart so I–"

"Stop, just _stop_," Jack grit out, his eyes grew wide with anger.

"I didn't do anything! I was asleep the whole damn time and my nightmares were beating the shit out of me, alright?!"

He then whipped his head at Toothiana.

"And why'd you tell him all that?!"

But she wasn't looking at him. She was still staring up at Aster, trying to focus on his hair for control.

Tooth's fingers shook and her legs grew weak again.

But no...No!

She remembered his neck moving, his hands on her around her waist, his...

She still felt touch on her lips.

It was real. _It was real._

But it was something pretty stupid?

...Something pretty_ stupid..._

Like her tiny, little heart.

"Toothiana, what's wrong?"

Immediately, her mind cruelly replayed the night's earlier memory. And where the burn in her neck trailed, she felt Jack's fingertips.

Tooth's mouth fell open but no words were coming out. All she could think about was the ache in her chest and the conflicting emotions threatening to dominate her face.

And Jack grew worried.

"T..._Toothiana?"_ Jack called sternly.

* * *

_His eyelids were floating halfway over his vision and his gaze was muddled, unseeing._

_"T...Toothiana..."_

* * *

Her eyes grew glassy.

Tooth lowered her eyes from Aster at the sound of his voice and stared all around.

She wanted to say something, _lie, _have the ground swallow her up. Instead, she felt like her entire body shrivel up.

And when her gaze finally caught Jack's, his eyes widened.

He saw a light sheen of tears mist over her vision before she looked away.

"'Ey! Leave 'er alone!" Aster butt in. She was obviously still afraid of the brunette and was afraid to speak up against his aggression. And that angered him a lot.

But Jack wasn't looking at him. He was narrowing his eyes gently at Tooth.

She looked desperate, afraid...And he interpreted it all wrong.

_"...What did he do?_" he breathed coldly.

Aster's ears perked up threateningly.

"Ey?"

Jack immediately glared at him.

"What did you _do_ to her?!"

And before either could react, Jack rushed forward. He shot his fingers out and grabbed Aster by the collar of his shirt again.

"Crike–"

Tooth tried to blink away her stinging eyes and moved in to save the Australian.

"Jack, _no!"_

But Jack's fingers tightened like a cobra against the Australian's shirt. Aster jerked away to push them away from Toothiana but the second the hacker did, the shorter brunette let go.

He grounded his boot into the concrete then pushed off to go at him again.

Jack threw a straight punch, intending to punch the guy in the jaw, but Aster's subconscious kicked in.

At the last possible moment, Aster relaxed his muscles and moved. He bent his right arm straight up from the elbow and turned the solid trunk of his body – the nice, clean rollback of his wrist deflected Jack's fist easily.

But Jack was like lightning and the second he felt his fist go off course, he abruptly moved in to punch with the second hand. Aster sensed it immediately and relaxed his right hip joint.

"Jack! Edmund!"

Aster pushed all his weight from his left side. He pivoted on the ball of his right foot, and after watching Jack's fist coming, he twisted his torso to the right. He threw his right arm across his chest and knocked it away with a ward off. Then in one fluid motion, Aster used the momentum of his twist to swing his hands together in a cradle to his left, and timing it with two-steps forward, he swung the cradle back and shoved into Jack with the strength of his elbow.

When Jack stumbled away, Aster rushed forward. The hacker knocked down both of Jack's arms which were coming back up to hit him. The Aussie then pushed him away from Tooth with a quick front kick and Jack almost tripped before he dropped into a crouch.

"Ya bloody show pony!" Aster snarled.

He felt his adrenaline pumping and like Jack, his gene was prickling across his skin, threatening to shoot out of his fingertips.

But Aster wanted Jack to stop. He was violent and nearly hurt the both of them_ twice!_ But the brunette pulled up him from his crouch, slow and lethal, like a panther – and a second later, Jack retaliated.

He jumped into a spinning hook kick and got his boot into the man's ribcage. Then when Jack landed, he spun inwards, delivered an upward cut to the Aussie's stomach, and reached for Aster's wrist. By the time he twisted the six-foot brunette over him, he was able to push him against the counter.

And in the blink of an eye, Jack pulled a knife from his boot, ready to shove it against Aster's neck.

His blue eyes sharp and ruthless.

"YOU LEAVE HER ALONE!"

It was all too much.

"Y'BLOODY–"

But enough was enough.

_Click! Click!_

Both men stopped, their ears perking up and nerves bristling. Was the other _really_ such a coward that he'd try to pull out a–

_"HEY!"_

When Jack and Aster whipped their heads, they froze.

It wasn't either of _them_ who'd pulled out a gun.

It was Tooth.

And she was pointing both rifles at their feet – but she had an immense look of distress written all over her face.

"Both of you _stop it!"_

"Oy, princess! Wh–You can't set those off in 'ere–"

_Bang!_

A bullet sparked across the cement a foot away while Tooth gasped desperately.

"Tr-Try me!" she gulped nervously and Aster closed his mouth as they looked at each other.

But while the two had a silent talk with their eyes, Jack's mouth grew dry.

His earlier nightmare hit him right between the eyes.

* * *

**"Get away from him!"**

**"Tooth, what's wrong?!" **

_**"Toothian–"**_

_**BANG!**_

* * *

When Aster felt his hold go limp, he smacked Jack's hand away. The two then absentmindedly stepped apart as Tooth stalked up to both them.

"I want you both to _stop_ right now o-or _so help me_..." she faded out when she neared them.

They dropped their hands at their sides.

The princess then reached into Aster's jean pocket and pulled out his only gun which was sticking out. She dumped it on the medical bed then moved to Jack and slipped her hand behind to his belt loop. She pulled his gun and retractable staff away.

He scowled.

_"Seriously?_ You think that's–"

But she shoved the head of her gun into his abdomen – and under normal circumstances, Jack wouldn't have even batted an eyelash. But the dream and her face...he tensed instantly.

He furrowed his eyebrows, mumbling under his breath worriedly.

"Toothiana..."

She spared him an quick, upset look before she looked away.

Then reaching down, she pulled the blade from his fingers and lowered all the way down to his left boot. She pulled out the other one, hidden discreetly on its side and tossed both onto the table too.

Tooth then stepped away from both of them and gestured to the door.

"Both of you go into the kitchen."

And they obeyed without a word.

As they walked, Tooth continued to regret more and more how easy it was for her to lift a gun.

But when their backs were turned, she looked down at the cement floor and tried to ignore Jack's blue-eyed gaze, the long scar still on his torso, or his fingers as they twitched ahead of her.

This wasn't how she'd pictured things when he woke up. Not at all.

...

_10:29 p.m._

Aster opened the door and went out into the Warren. Jack followed in a daze from behind.

When the three reached the table, Tooth sighed shakily under her breath and re-holstered her guns under her skirt.

"Now _sit,"_ she ordered and they both took seats opposite the other. Aster and Jack then had a stare-off, cold and commanding as ever, while Tooth moved around quickly.

With her mutely distracted by the clinks she was making at the counter, Jack crossed his arms over his chest.

"That was a _Grasp the Sparrow's Tail_," Jack mumbled, still tired from the gunshot surgery and the comatose. "Where'd you learn Tai Chi?"

"None of your damn business!" Aster spat. Tooth looked back with the corner of her eye.

So that explained it. That's why the Australian had remarkable stamina and such a mental freshness despite living underground...He used the martial art to relax his mind and channel his outward aggression as inner strength, rather than Jack who used his the other way around.

Aster pushed his glasses back on his face.

"An' like hell you'd tell _me _where you earned that black belt," he added. "What're ya like, 5th dan?"

Jack gritted his teeth.

"I'm _7th._"

And Aster froze as Jack darted his eyes around the Warren. He took in the moist heat, the flowers, and the few old, stuffed rabbits hiding around the room in mild discomfort.

"At least I think that's where I stopped," and he shot the twenty-seven-year-old a cold look, "So don't you _think _about messing with me, Peter Rabbit."

"Is that some sorta pick at all the fluffy ones 'round here?" Aster griped. Jack shrugged nonchalantly and Aster raised a finger.

"You lay off 'em," he muttered darkly. "They belonged to my family."

And at that, Jack stopped eyeing them to look back at the Australian uncomfortably. He opened his mouth to say something...but then a smell started floating around the room.

When he looked up from his chair, he watched Tooth's skirt float away from the fridge as it closed itself. In the smell of the hot cooking oil, she held two eggs in one hand.

He raised an eyebrow and the green-eyed brunette leaned away from him to stare too.

"Princess?" Aster asked lightly.

"What the heck are you doing?" Jack squinted in confusion as she leaned out to Aster.

"Could you please?" she asked.

Jack watched in horror as Aster tilted his head before he raised his hand. A second later, a deep crack surfaced across the eggs and split the shells in two. When the hacker pulled his fingertips away, Tooth expertly dropped the yolks over the pan.

Jack didn't say a word.

She was silent for a moment, letting the crackle and pop of the heat settle the tension. She didn't know why she thought this was a good idea – especially now that she'd realized two very highly-skilled (and attractive) operatives in their respective fields were assessing her from behind! But they'd stopped fighting _because_ of her and as she embarrassed herself, she hoped this would work.

It also helped to quell the aching pain in her heart as she thought about something else other than Jack and his unintentionally hurtful words.

Tooth blew out a breath.

"W-When my sisters Tiana and Tulia start to fight, there is nothing no one can do to stop them. Not even my tutor, Mr. Sandy and he's the gentlest person in the castle."

Jack and Aster bristled slightly in their seats.

Was she implying that they acted like brothers?

'_Brothers, my ass,'_ they both thought. They wanted to _murder_ each other.

And Aster would've told her that...had he not seen her face grow sullen and distant.

"So one day," she continued. "I didn't say anything. I just went into the kitchen and I started to cook. I read somewhere that the smell of cooking oil can help lower anyone's adrenaline. And you know what? It worked! It helped them to stop fighting. So whenever they started fighting again, everyone expected me to play the cooking referee. And they've been closer ever since."

"That stuff true about the oil," Aster agreed and Jack eyed him funny.

The hacker caught it and scowled.

"Oy, I know Tai Chi, remember? I read up on alot of calming techniques."

"Yeah and you need it," Jack grumbled coldly, "considering how easily you blow a fuse at everything I say."

"You're one to talk, mate!" Aster protested. "Should we replay who went off first back there and whose knife was at my–"

"Guys, I swear to god!"

They both shut up.

Tooth was looking at them still sad and shaken. She flit her gaze between them (albeit a little longer on Jack and his new, unforgivably blue eyes) before she turned back to the stove.

"So that's what you're doing?" Jack asked as his forehead creased. "You're...You're making us food to calm us down?"

She rolled her eyes as she plated the finished eggs.

"Psh, please don't flatter yourself," she retorted and turned around. When she walked to the table, Jack leaned forward slightly to catch her eyes in the light. They were downcast but he could tell...she was trying to avoid him.

"I'm doing this for _all of us_," she explained and put the plates in front of them.

They both frowned and looked at her. Aster tilted his head again.

"Why? What's wrong, sheila?"

"Nothing! L-Look I'm not expecting you to eat it_ all_. But even if it's just one bite, that's all I want. _Please."_

The tone in her voice was so tired and insecure. What was making her such on edge of all sudden?

They cast each other dark looks, taking a hint – Tooth picked up on it though and frowned angrily.

"You know I'm the only one with a weapon on me!" she argued and they looked back at her. Tooth crossed her arms.

"And there's a table between us, so while I might not hit both of you, one of you is bound to end up going through a sew-up again."

And Jack paled slightly.

Aster didn't know it yet but Toothiana's aim with a gun was pretty clean.

"Fine, Tooth," he mumbled lightly and she handed him a fork. Aster blinked between the two of them (hearing Jack say the princess' name funny) before Tooth offered her him another. They both eyed the food, suddenly craving the smell and the look.

She waited.

And finally, they started to eat for her sake.

The second they did though, they spit it back out.

"TOOTH! WHAT THE–"

"Crikey, sheila! What's in that laundry detergent?!" And he rushed to the fridge to get him and Jack two bottles.

When he rushed back and tossed one to the brunette, the both of them guzzled a long sip. Tooth watched as they both gasped afterwards and tried to collect themselves. She found it funny that two powerhouses like themselves were suddenly squeamish after one tiny bite of her trick.

She rubbed her head sheepishly.

"Sorry," she mumbled and Jack glared at her.

"No you're not."

"Okay no," she admittedly shrugged. "Not entirely...Not even a little actually."

And when she laughed a little, the sound of her voice calmed both boys down, their facial expressions relaxing from their hard muscles. That was sorta impressive. But she didn't have to play the sob card – they would've done it for her anyway if she'd just asked.

"I'm more of a soup and baking type of girl!" she twirled the spatula in one hand. "I'm not very good with foods in pans, especially frying!"

'_Which is sorta embarrassing to my culture but sue me!'_ she cried to herself in her head.

"Then why insist on making us one and w...How did you even manage to cook eggs wrong?!" Jack demanded and Aster threw her dirty look.

"Probably because she'd rather watch us die at the hand of her chef skills than her gun, mate."

Jack scowled down at the eggs.

"I think I would've preferred the gun," he muttered but Tooth puffed her cheeks. She shot Jack a, _'Are-you-SERIOUSLY-saying-that-after-what-you-just -went-through'_ look.

When he caught it, he lifted his eyebrows.

"Right, sorry," he mumbled and looked at the Australian for a little help.

When he did, they both chuckled.

But that stopped not even a second into it.

They instantly stopped.

What the hell?

Jack and Aster immediately shot each other disturbed looks. They tried to glare at each other again, but they caught Toothiana staring at them. She was hugging the spatula tightly.

"So..." she pushed a lock of hair behind her ear and frowned. "Ar-Are we okay?"

Aster was the first to blink.

"I suppose," Aster mumbled and got up to move the dishes away. "But I'm doing this for you, sheila. Not for the bloke."

When he moved past her to wash the dishes, she smiled up at him and he returned it.

But once he wasn't in their line of sight, Jack looked up at her. His eyebrows furrowed together.

"Are _we?_" he mumbled under his breath worriedly and Tooth looked at him – but then she caught his tongue flick out to catch the salt still on his lips.

Tooth couldn't look at him after that and tried to avoid his gaze with a heavy heart.

And he hated it.

...

_10:41 p.m._

After Aster finished and went back to the table, Jack eyed him acutely.

"So what do you down here anyway?" he said and crossed his arms again. "You some kind of hermit?"

Tooth bit her lip.

"No, Jack. H-He was a tech analyst for your company. For the GUARDIAN program."

"You're a hacker?"

But when Aster nodded proudly, Jack scoffed.

"Compared to what _I _do, that's nothing," he said dryly.

"Jack, you don't get it!" Tooth argued. "He's ELETRONICALPHA."

And Jack's eyebrows actually lifted up.

"He is?" he asked and blinked up at Tooth. She nodded, still avoiding his eyes.

"Yeah...Hue, your account, the complinks, he does all of it for North!"

Jack looked around the Warren for a second, taking it all in, and blowing air passed his teeth.

"Wow, that's pretty impressive for a nerd," and Jack paused to look at him sardonically. "No offence."

Aster didn't take to that lightly. Even Tooth was a bit hurt by it, considering how much she was a techie herself.

"W-Wh..." he sputtered but he grew angry again. "How is that not offensive?!"

He shoved his finger in Jack's face again.

"I have North's ELFs, and a world to look after. While all you do is creep in the shadows and kill people."

Jack narrowed his eyes.

"What I do actually matters, mate," Aster finished. "It actually has a purpose."

And Jack stopped. Something in his chest (not counting the healing bullet hole) was tugging him achingly.

He bit the inside of his cheek and glared at the floor behind the green-eyed Aussie.

"I used to have one," he mumbled bitterly. Aster said nothing.

"And that's why you need to go back," Aster finished and Jack nodded, quoting North.

_"Back to where it all started._"

Tooth watched him rub his eye distractedly. She could almost see his immediate pain when his blue iris swiveled around for a moment – both she and Aster guessed it was another memory.

When he came back, Jack looked around desperately for a moment before his eyes landed on the Australian again. Aster pulled away and glared at jack.

"You need to remember who you were too so you can help North, the princess, and yourself."

Jack's intense glare on the hacker immediately let up. He blinked warily.

"Seriously? Just like that you switch opinions? You're like a wayward rabbit."

"Oy, you're still a stick in my ass, mate, but like it or not, you're a GUARDIAN," Aster cut Jack off before he could say anything. "We were all one in the same before they shut us down. So it's not only North's job to look after us..."

And he brought his firm gaze back to Jack's.

"It's mine too, mate."

Jack's eyes were guarded and he didn't say anything as he looked up at the blue-tipped brunette.

Aster however saw Jack's through blank look.

In a slight flicker of the light, the Aussie was able to see underneath it all – Jack's confusion, his desperation, and his hostility. The kid's ability to channel his inner aggression like it was nothing was impressive. But he understood Jack's character to bottle things up – it was part of being a spy.

Aster then frowned. He moved away from the shorter brunette entirely.

"We'll leave in ten," he said. "And since it's Christmas eve, I doubt many people will be on the roads so that'll give us good cover."

"Okay. Well..." Tooth mumbled out loud and Aster turned to look down at her. She sent him a tight smile before she moved around the counter again. The princess then backed away from the kitchen toward to the rooms on the right again.

"Well, I'm going to go and get my things together," she jerked a thumb at her room beside the medical one and the Aussie nodded.

"Thank you, Edmund."

"Alright, sheila," he agreed and after he shot a smile, he moved away from the counter. "And I'm gonna go send a quick notice to the ELFs. Let 'em know where I'll be."

Tooth spun and moved quickly, shooting Jack another weak smile of her own.

But once her door was closed again, Aster's light expression became dark again.

He leaned down to Jack (who was still sitting at the table) and to brunette's surprise, the hacker switched to the GUARDIAN's secret language.

_(__Луна_) "And oy, you _lay off her__,"_ Aster muttered coldly and Jack's eyebrows high on his forehead.

_"Excuse me?"_ he hissed but Aster narrowed his eyes.

_"You're supposed to be protecting her. Not teachin' her how to be a gunslinger,"_ he whispered back hotly. _"She shouldn't be running around like–s-she's tiny! Haven't you got a brain in that skull of yours?"_

Jack immediately stood up and moved around the table. He pointed back in the Australian's face.

_"Don't talk like you know me,"_ Jack threatened. _"Or __her__. I've done a good job so far making sure she isn't afraid of punks of like you. And frankly, I'm pretty sure that if she heard you say that, she would have kicked you in the balls right now."_

Aster was thrown off by the last comment and blinked.

Just as quick though, he was back in Jack's face with a determined protectiveness.

_"But she's a princess, mate! You're corrupting her, and without good purpose!"_

_"And you'd better show her some goddamn respect. She's a lot tougher than you think. So if you believe for a __second__ that I would take your judgment on that, then–"_

_"Was I blind ten minutes ago? I know she's capable! But you heard me. And y'know it too, so stop lyin' to your bloody self."_

_"Argh,_ you know what?" Jack switched back to English. "Fine, _fine!"_ He then raised his good arm and waved his hand in a mock surrender. "You're right. Codename Kangaroo is right."

"Co-Code what? What did you call me? I'm _not_ a kangaroo, mate!"

Jack rolled his eyes to the ground.

"Oh and this whole time I thought you were," he mumbled sarcastically. "If you're not a kangaroo," and he leaned in dangerously close, "_what are you?_ A bunny?"

"I'm not a bunny. I'm The BUNNY," he threatened Jack. "Codename _EASTER_BUNNY. And people believe in me."

Jack pulled away.

"What the _hell _is that supposed to mean?" He exhaled angrily, his nostrils flaring, but Aster continued.

"Like I said before, I've got a purpose. People know how I am, what I do, and they need me. But y'see, you're invisible, mate. It's like you don't even exist! And what good is that to her or anyone else?"

Jack refused to comment – but that didn't mean Aster didn't see the slight shift in his cold expression.

He was second-guessing himself. Aster then bared his teeth.

"So don't come in 'ere, actin' like y'know what's better for her," he muttered. "She's clearly still afraid of you, and until ya get that sorted out, I can't blame 'er. Yer a walkin' number."

And with that, Aster moved around Jack and went back to his computer room.

As he left, muttering something about 'bloody American blokes', Jack's gaze lowered to the floor where the Australian had stood. He couldn't control the dread that dripped into his stomach – it was the same foreboding feeling that Pitch had left there just twenty-four hours ago.

He was still afraid that he didn't matter to anyone.

And he was still afraid, that he'd never figure out why.

...

_10:52 p.m._

Jack shut the door of the medical room and sighed.

He then dropped to the floor, landing flat on his palms, and did fifty, easy push-ups. He grunted from the dull pain in his chest but wanted to assess his physical condition and do something to get his nervous energy pumping.

When he was done, he paused in mid-air and glanced at the stain of blood on the floor nearby – apart from that, at least he was normal again. Jack then did a light handspring and leaped upright.

But it was a bit messy.

_"Shit!"_

When he stood up, he pressed a palm to his chest. The muscle in his forearm had a slight spasm and he frowned at the floor.

_'Guess that won't be seeing any action again for a couple more hours_,_' _he thought before he bent down.

Tooth dropped his backpack on the floor earlier and he was grateful that he could rummage through it in peace.

Well, sort of.

His thoughts were still racing – there had been _so much _tension just now between the three of them.

What the hell had happened? Jack didn't know what to think and normally he had such conviction in those kinds of situations. He always liked to have control _but,_ in his defence, he'd been knocked out for hours. When he woke up, he was in a tiny room underground with no windows or any means of mapping out his escape routes and exit procedures – and like the airplane washroom he'd been alone in with Tooth, he always felt uncomfortable in enclosed, dark spaces.

He moved his bag up to the medical table and sighed angrily, shoving his knives back into his boots.

But afterwards, when he finally pulled out a shirt, he froze.

Jack gripped it tightly in his hands and looked around the room. A frown etched itself onto his face again before he looked up worriedly.

He saw the two doors exiting the room – the one they'd all used to go back into main room, and the one he hadn't bothered to check.

But he had a feeling, and he moved toward it.

...

_10:57 p.m._

Tooth was busy reapplying her pink eyeshadow. She threw on a little eyeliner out of blind anxiety and it accented her thick eyelashes.

As she moved away to look in the mirror though, her composure was still shaken.

"Don't say anything, Tooth," she mumbled bitterly to herself. "Don't say _anything_...All the love you put out is gonna come back to you one da–"

_Click!_

The door beside her flung open immediately.

"H-Holy crap!" she gasped. She slammed her hand on her chest.

Jack stepped through with a vehement look on his face.

He was still shirtless (even though he was holding one in his hand) but Tooth couldn't really appreciate it at the moment as he stood in front of her.

"D-Don't do that!" she squealed quietly. "I've already gone into more cardiac arrests than one person should be able to handle!"

Jack didn't say anything to answer and for that, she blinked.

"H-Hey, what's wrong?" she asked lightly. It came out innocent and genuine (like she wanted) but underneath, her heart was a tempest and her skin was crawling with desperation. "Are you...okay?"

Jack rubbed one side of his head. When he pulled his hand away to make sure the dye wasn't rubbing out, he looked back at her.

"Yeah, I'm getting there," he mumbled.

When she only nodded however, he eyed her curiously.

"What about you?"

Tooth took the opportunity to turn back around and collect her fallen makeup case on the shelf.

She had a small smile on, but it was like plastic.

"I-I didn't get shot," she pointed out. "_You_ did and I–"

"Was a complete mess when I passed out? Yeah, I remember."

Tooth paused to look at him through the mirror's reflection.

The second their eyes met, she froze.

She'd have to get used to those eyes...his _real _eyes, including how stunning they were, and how much they really suited him against his smooth, white skin. Tooth dropped the gaze pathetically and moved around him to her bag.

But Jack crossed his arms and looked at her worriedly.

The first time they met, he thought he'd only have to see her freak out over his change in clothes – but eye color was different, a _bigger_ change in fact! Yet she was barely reacting. And Jack couldn't understand why.

"Is this freaking you out?" he finally asked.

She snapped her head up.

"What?"

He lifted a finger from his crossed arms to point at his face worriedly. Tooth shook her head however.

So he frowned.

"Peter Cottontail didn't do anything or make you feel uncomfortable while I was out, did he?"

Tooth packed what little she had and flicked her gaze at him. She kept moving around to distract him, like a scared little bird.

"We're still back to that?" she tried to joke lightly. "Honest Jack, he's nice, and look! You're fine, and I'm fine, w...W-We're all fine! Okay?"

"I'm just _asking_ because when I first saw you, you looked...I don't know. You didn't look right."

Tooth stopped pushing into her bag and looked up at him. She made a show to roll her eyes but her heart tugged inside her again.

"Really? _Really,_ I didn't_ look_ right? And there's no reason, _whatsoever,_ as to why you think that?"

Jack squinted at her and bit the inside of his cheek.

Meanwhile, her lips were smacking.

Would he even _get_ the code in that message?

But when Jack clenched his jaw, all her hope was killed.

"Did something happen between you and him?" Jack spat. He then glared darkly. "Because if something did, I mean that's...actually it's not fine, we don't have time for that kind of shit right now! Especially whe–"

"What?! N-No! Stop being paranoid!" she tried to laugh but it came out so pathetic, Tooth had to avoid him.

She moved past him, wanting to go back into the medical room and away from his line of vision but her entire body was going into tremors–

Jack's hand shot out and grabbed hers.

The second he did though, that cold tingle pricked all the way up to her neck.

Tooth gasped.

"Jack, everything's _okay!"_

She bit her lip and pulled herself away. Now every time he did that, all she'd imagine were those same hands on her waist and gripping her neck.

But he froze.

He wasn't prepared for that – Tooth normally turned to stone (or jelly) when he touched her. Now it was like he'd burned her and that disturbed him.

He wanted answers and he kept moving forward while Tooth tried to keep distance.

"Then what's wrong with you?!"

"I'm _fine!"_

"No, you're _not!"_

"I _AM_, you psycho!"

Tooth backed up until she was up against the sink counter. But that was as far as she could go.

Jack wouldn't let her go any farther as he lifted a hand and tried to reason with her.

"You can tell me anything," he said firm and serious. "You know that, so don't be like this!"

She gripped the edge of the counter, watching his lips move a mile minute.

"Tooth, I know more about you than _you_ knew about yourself in the last two days a...and you know more about me, more than anyone."

He frowned.

"I've told you_ everything_ I can, there are no secrets left with me!"

And that hurt.

Tooth needed to breathe, she needed a little bit more time to prepare for another possible battle (unlike him). And for all his perfection and all his flaws, Tooth needed to calm the racing in her heart that wanted to tackle him and punch him in the throat at the same time!

She arched her back slightly as Jack came closer to her than she thought he'd come – but it was only because he was leaning down to stare into her face, trying to read her thoughts.

He was _right there_.

Alive, able-bodied, and annoying just as she wanted. But _dammit it all to hell_, he didn't know how much he'd just destroyed her several hours ago with those eyes and lips of his. How painful was it that he couldn't remember putting her cloud nine then have her fall again like it was nothing?

Tooth looked away. She kept trying to pretend that she was looking for something around the room – and that upset him.

Normally she was an open book, her emotions running across her eyes and in the corners of her lips like a coloured cartoon. But since he'd woken up, Jack couldn't read her.

His eyebrows furrowed together heavily.

"Come on," he said sternly. "Look at me. What did he do?"

_"Jack..."_ she groaned and she shut her eyes.

He would continue to play that Aster-is-the-one-blame card, and that continued to break her heart more. But it seemed like he didn't think _he _was the problem.

He didn't remember, which meant it...it really _was_ just a center gene reaction.

_'And maybe...'_ she thought. _'Maybe his subconscious only did it as an end-of-the-world sort of spur of the moment. I was just a 'Let's get kissed one more time before we croak' type deal, and oh look! It's princess too...Oh god, Tooth...'_

She couldn't bear it, but she smiled sadly, hoping to bury it.

Tooth should've known better though.

Jack had an aptitude for muscle configuration and knew what each quirk of the jaw meant. And through her tight smile, he knew she was lying.

She tried again more urgently.

"H-He didn't do anything Jack, honest!"

"Then what's wrong!?" he demanded.

Tooth shut her mouth.

"Tooth!"

"What's _wrong?!"_

Finally, she stepped up to him.

"What's wrong...What's wrong is...y...you...y-you almost died!"

She then moved around him and threw her hand all around the medical room.

"Y-You got shot, and there was blood _everywhere_, and I had to watch your center get all freaky winter magic on me, a-and I..." She covered her eyes. "Ugh, and I _never_ want to perform an emergency sew-up on anyone _ever again!"_

And Jack finally blinked.

"But we've been through worse. Hell, _I've_ been through worse!" he said and his blue (his blue, blue, heartbreaker's) eyes were surreptitious.

Tooth couldn't look him properly after that. She looked all around his face as he frowned deeply.

"Tooth, I'm sorry I freaked you out," he mumbled.

She bit her lip in response, but she didn't look up. He was making her dizzy, with all these emotions running rampant across her head.

Her heart was having spasms.

But Jack continued desperately, his fists tightened at his sides.

"I'm trying to make things as painless for you as possible but everything I do just keeps _wrecking_ that! But don't lose hope in me, okay? As long as I'm still breathing, I won't stop. I promised I'd help you get your sisters back and we're gonna take down Pitch toge–"

She shook her head, her brain sloshing in pain.

"No, Jack!"

He froze.

"What?"

"No, no, no! It's not you, honest!" She was balled her hands into tight fists, thinking if she said it a few more times it would come true.

"Then what is i–"

"It's not you!" Her chest grew tight. "It's _not_, it's...y-you're awesome and you..."

His eyes widened.

"T...To–"

Tooth took a few gasps of air.

His proximity made the world spin, the air thin. His skin was so close, his eyes were so clear, and that meant her heart was at war with itself.

"Y..." She shut her eyes.

"You..."

And instead of finishing, she did something she thought she'd never do.

Tooth took a step forward...

"_You–"_

...and moved to throw up in the sink.

Ick.

She upchucked what little she had in her stomach into the medical sink and nearly cried when the muscles in her abdomen protested. But what with Jack's near-dying act, Tuhina's tooth box, that kiss, Edmund's misguided worrying, and well, _everything_...Tooth heaved again and leaned more into the counter.

Jack cringed as he watched the princess' body tremble.

"Okay, didn't see _that _coming," he muttered and he rubbed his head. He couldn't see her face though since her hair got in the way and Tooth frowned into her sickness.

When she finally stopped, Tooth gasped for air. She was so upset with everything and herself for getting worked up like that – they had a terrorist to stop, and sisters to save!

_'Oooh, Tooth!_' she cried to herself as she coughed bitterly. _'Just stay like this with your face in the sink forever and die!'_

But then Tooth stopped moving.

She felt her hair on the right side of her face moving.

When Tooth peeked through her closed eyelids, she watched Jack move her hair away from her face.

He was frowning gently.

He gathered it behind her neck in his large palm until she finished coughing down what little she had left in her stomach. When she did, Tooth shut her mouth and turned her head up to look at him.

"Sorry," she mumbled, cheeks pink from embarrassment and he patted her back awkwardly.

Tooth then lifted her head from the sink and wiped her mouth. He let go of her hair and as she moved to wash her hands, he went over to his backpack.

When he came back, he was holding the toothpaste they shared.

"Here," he offered gently.

And Tooth blinked thoughtfully.

"W..."

But she stopped.

It was at that moment, as Tooth held the tube in her hand that she knew she could never tell Jack about the kiss. For all that it could've symbolised, all that it might have meant, she couldn't do that to him. Because for all his damned idiosyncrasies and the way he made her feel, that's what Tooth respected about him and why she had the biggest crush on him of the century.

Jack would never mention the kiss unless he wanted to hurt her and it seemed like he didn't even know. So all she could hope was that in their one moment, maybe a small part of him wanted to kiss her back, just to see what it was like. And that was enough.

_'And you're a selfless, little Tooth, and you choose not to lose the one thing you have left that you care about, to all of this!' _

At least she just had to keep telling the flame in her heart that.

"Thanks, Jack," Tooth smiled.

Jack moved away after with a small smile while she squeezed paste onto her finger.

She swallowed down a big sob before a trying smile found itself on her face.

...

When she was done, he walked back to her.

"So are you okay?"

"As long you're fine, I'm happy," she mumbled. Then with a flit of her pink eyes to his bandaged shoulder, she timidly reached up to pat over his heart.

"Does that hurt?"

"No."

And his answer made a bigger smile blossom across her cheeks bright enough to blind him.

"Good. And as long _you_ keep going, and you keep fighting, _this _(she pointed to her smile) won't change."

* * *

_"Don't apologize, Tooth," he mumbled loudly and pressed his cheek to her hair. "Just keep fighting."_

* * *

Jack looked down at her hand.

When she tried to move again however, he grabbed it.

"Wait."

Toothiana spun around.

Her eyes grew wide as she watched Jack stumble. He took a moment to glare down at their joined hands.

Then he looked back up at her with a concerned look.

"So are we...We're...sorta like friends now, right?"

Tooth's heart stopped.

"We-We are?"

Jack looked like he wanted to crawl up and hide...or a punch a guy, she wasn't sure which.

He frowned slightly.

"Well, yeah. After everything we've been through, sh..." Jack's eyebrows furrowed. "...shouldn't we be?"

She couldn't believe the words coming out of his mouth and her mouth ended up sputtering like a fish.

Jack stood there awkward, looking down at her while his fingers twitched.

Eventually he rose an eyebrow.

"Tooth?" he tried again.

Finally, her pink eyes grew wide with shock. Tooth tilted her head and squinted up at him.

_"Really?"_ she breathed.

And he nodded.

"Yeah, I do."

And his conviction stirred the same parts of her heart that his kiss had.

And it skipped a beat.

She knew this was a big step for him – Jack didn't really want to keep anyone close and it was such an honor to her...but had he said it nine hours ago, she would've been over the moon.

Instead, her hands were shaking and something in Tooth's chest cracked. She felt like her ribcage was physically twisting under her skin.

_'No, Tooth!'_

And a second later, she swallowed down her nervousness and a small smile crept onto her face.

"Y-Yeah...Friends who threaten to ditch each other, fight, have mental breakdowns, drop half-naked on each other and scream...i-if that's what it called, I like it."

Jack exhaled a breath through his nose that he didn't know he was holding.

"Don't ever hide yourself from me, Tooth," he said sternly and she huffed.

"I'm fine, Jack. I promise. So just...relax, okay? You got me."

Tooth then moved away.

"I'm gonna...go back to my room now. So put on that shirt already," she joked. But the second he couldn't see her face, her smile fell away and her upset expression cracked through.

Not even watching her feet, Tooth's calm walk became rushed. She felt like she couldn't breathe every second she stayed in the room – she needed to get away from Jack.

Through dizzy eyes, Tooth reached blindly for the door leading to her room and opened it.

...

When the door shut, Tooth leaned against. She covered her mouth and exhaled as quietly as she could.

She shut her eyes.

'_Go back and pretend...pretend like it didn't happen.'_

Yeah, pretend like it hadn't ripped her heart out and starved her of questions she would never ask. But her selfless heart, like the holiday that was currently being celebrated all over the world won over her desires and she bottled it up forever.

Keep going, and help get Jack, help _everyone_, out of this hellhole.

And that meant there was no time for romance. Friendships maybe, but that was enough.

'_This is for the best...I know it is,' _she reassured herself then moved away from the door. _'I just wish I hadn't set myself up for it.'_

But at least she had that moment, and now, she could tuck it away forever and be in a better place with Jack.

Tooth wiped her eye.

And despite her aching heart, she sighed in relief.

...

What Toothiana didn't know was that Jack had followed her to the door until it closed.

With the steel blocking him from her, he stopped and stared at it.

As his forehead creased, Jack placed his hand on the door. His blue eyes moved around in concern before they landed on the bin beside him – it was filled bloodied cloths.

He shut his eyes.

**"**_**This agent has bee-en properly d–...d –he i-is no longer-r..."**_

Jack's palm on the door tightened into a fist – he felt his company and Pitch slip into his mind and wash away Tooth's eyes like footprints in the sand.

"_**You precious princess and her little copies can't hide in my shadows for long."**_

With a look over his shoulder, he glared at the other door.

Jack swore to himself, everything and everyone that made him like this would suffer.

They had no right, and they were corrupting what little he had.

...

_11:03 p.m._

When Jack and Toothiana finally emerged from their separate rooms, Aster was all ready, standing in his fur-trimmed coat and his arms crossed.

He nodded at the two of them as they slung their bags over their coat sleeves – Jack was in his black turtleneck, a blue hoodie, and his stolen leather jacket since his trenchcoat was totalled from the blood. Meanwhile, Tooth was in her coat with her purple scarf wrapped around her own turtleneck.

Aster nodded.

"You guys ready?"

Jack nodded. Tooth looked up at him briefly before she turned back to Edmund and gave a weak smile.

When they moved past him however, Aster leaned down to Tooth.

"I heard you guys talk in there," he mumbled. "Did he apologize?"

Tooth paused for a second to nod tiredly.

Aster grew visibly more relaxed.

"Good on ya," he said. He then moved to one of the closed doors of the Warren. Then with a tap of his boot, he pressed a light blue activator on the floor and the door slid open sideways – it revealed a dark tunnel that would lead up to a secret car lot.

He nudged his head.

"Now let's go find your memories, mate."

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "Not Like the Other Girls" – The Rasmus

**If you know me by now, then you know I never leave things unsettled. And alright guys, participation time! Haha anyone who can speak anything other than English please PM me – I require a little help (seven things translated) for one of the chapters coming up. (; Cred if you do!**


	26. Down The Rabbit Hole We Go

**I forgot this chapter is long too! Sorry, the next one is :3 Let's just say the Green Arc wins for length-and-eyeball destruction lmao. You're all amazing! If I could take out eyeballs and give them massages, you'd all get one! ****And to the anon who threatened me with a 4-5 day update lmao, I'm a day late but is this good enough for you? (; ****And aww guys! Thanks for all responses to my language shout out! I have so many now, more than I thought I would need, and I'm gonna incorporate you all (: Be sure to find replies in your inbox, my lovelies! And have a good start to summer! (and long weekend to all my Canadian peeps!)**

* * *

_On the road,_ _11:43 p.m._

Aster twirled his paintbrush with his fingers before he put it between his teeth.

_"Skinny bastard..."_

He didn't have buckteeth. His molars were just _large_ and if the princess appreciated that, then Jack could just go to hell.

The hacker tightened his grip on the wheel.

Aster flicked his acid, green eyes to said brunette in the passenger seat. Silent and brooding, Jack was busy looking out the window with his fist under his chin but after being out for hours, that kid wouldn't need sleep for _days._

Whatever.

Men had their issues – but now the Australian wished more than ever that Toothiana was sitting in the front, especially since the two had argued earlier about who'd drive the car. And even after a few good heated minutes, both were still fuming under their calm expressions.

Jack was hotheaded, trying to making it obvious that he was more skilled in high-performance driving...but it _was_ Aster's baby, an _Aston Martin One-77..._and built in with freaking computers too! So there was no way, _in seven rings of hell,_ that the blue-tipped brunette was letting the recently wounded ex-spy get behind the wheel.

And Tooth?

Playing with her right glove, she was burning holes into both their heads from the back.

She also made a point not to catch Jack's gaze when he turned his head.

So all in all, yeah, it was a pretty uncomfortable ride.

"I ain't takin' the 390 or the 86," Aster finally said gruffly so Jack could hear. "We'll follow the NY-19 and head south, alrigh'?"

Jack didn't say anything and moved his gaze out past the dashboard. He watched the light snow dance in their headlights as they drove down the dark, lonely state road. It was a good plan as he mapped the route from Buffalo in his head. The I-86 was less traveled by people, especially tonight, and even though it would take longer it was for the best.

"How long will it take?" they both heard Tooth mumble from behind and Aster gazed at her silhouette from the rear view mirror.

The light from his computers illuminated her cheeks and her bleary eyes.

He frowned gently.

"Couple more hours, maybe two or three," he answered and she nodded.

"Oh okay...thanks, Edmund."

Jack paused.

He then eyed Tooth behind him, calculative and on edge.

"Why don't you get some sleep?" he finally suggested but the princess sat up higher in her seat and hugged herself.

"No, I'm alright, Jack." She still felt a little uncomfortable under his heavy stare but tried to cover it up with a gentle expression.

"Besides, if I fall asleep I can' stop you from killing each other."

"I ma' no whromises, rheila," Aster grumbled past his lips. Jack raised an eyebrow.

"You trying to gnaw down your teeth with that thing?"

"No, y'little shit. It's–"

_Beep! Beep!_

Aster glared down at the paintbrush and pulled it away. Embedded in the wood was a chip that started to blink.

_"Finally,_" he huffed. "It's a _beacon._ I like to hide things in ordinary–"

"That's not ordinary. Who the hell carries around a paintbrush?"

"And what kind of spy uses a 6'2 rod as their weapon?"

The ex-operative didn't comment.

"Yeah I saw," Aster smirked. "So shut it."

Jack and Tooth then eyed him curiously when he stroked the bristles on the touchscreen and a completely different program lit up.

"Whoa..." Tooth leaned as close as her seatbelt would let her. She knew if she wanted to, she could've just sat in the back without one – but growing up with bodyguards who kept insisting on it and having crazed spies with Nightmares on their asses prevented her from being that one bit rebellious.

She raised her eyebrows.

"Just when I thought this car couldn't get any cooler!" she mumbled warmly, trying to lighten the mood and Aster smiled in the rearview. He then touched the screen with his glove and a new HTML code started to write out. But Jack was quick and as he scrunched his eyebrows, he translated the coded sequence instantly.

"You're getting a shipment of tungsten?"

Aster lifted his eyebrows, mildly impressed that Jack wasn't all bite and actually _had_ brains. The kid could actually read encrypted HTML coding, something a nerd (like he'd slandered) needed to know. Well, what do you know?

But then again, the GUARDIAN program _did_ only train the best of the best.

Aster glared down at the screen as Jack crossed his arms, still reading it down.

"Yeah, from some ELFs. I need to re-attune the tracker rings for North."

He then ran his hand through his hair. "Pitch traced their energy signatures to Wales and apparently two of 'em got ditched. So his lot took 'em and tried to retrace the manufacturer back to me...And y'know, I _told _the Santa to make sure that couldn't happen..."

Jack's fingers twitched.

_Tracker rings._

He looked back at Tooth.

Her wide, cerise eyes looked back at him and her mouth fell open.

* * *

_Jack quickly slipped one onto her finger discreetly and shortened his long strides to match hers. She looked down at it curiously..._

_Tooth yanked off the promise ring, flinging it against the wall._

_"It was all for show! J...J-Just like me!"_

* * *

She caught his heavy gaze and looked down but Aster didn't pick up on their silence.

"Don't worry though," he sighed, "I cut the transmission and erased the keygen from my hard drive so the bastard's only got deaders. I'll rewrite a new algorithm later after they send me th–"

_Beep!_

As he finished talking, a built-in printer (slim and like an air vent), printed out a sheet right in front of Jack. He scrunched his face and pulled it ou–

Aster grabbed it from him.

"Don't touch my things, pretty boy," he muttered.

Jack shot him a dirty look and all Tooth could do was huff angrily in the back.

_'Seriously?'! T__hey're acting like ten-year-olds!'_

She then collapsed against the back seat and scratched her head like twitchy bird.

_'Argh, __I swear, if I wasn't sitting here and we all standing on solid ground I'd–'_

Wait...no, kicking the guys between their legs would_ not_ solve her current problem.

_'But it __did__ help solve all of my past ones.'_

Toothiana then started to count off all the guys in her head that she'd managed to hit since she'd been kidnapped...along with the shins she'd kicked... the faces she slapped...not to mention hitting Jack with a pair of sticks and knocking that Nightmare out with a helmet...

* * *

_"Hey lady, how about a dance?"_

_She lifted his other hand and bit down on his grubby wrist with her white teeth._

_"Cute little ethnic thing like her, I'd take her for a ride t–ARGH!"..."Not even if we were the last two people on earth."_

* * *

Tooth grinned – it felt like her first one in hours.

'_You go, Tooth! You proved that you're capable...Princesses don't need guns...except maybe on these two.'_

Oh jeez.

Okay, so maybe that WAS a bit of an overkill back at the Warren. But come on! When Jack and Edmund caught ninja crazy they were harder to handle than a butt load of Nightmares and bar hoppers.

_'But will have to do pull that off again?'_ She frowned._ 'There's no way they'd let me cook for them again. Aw crap...'_

As she bounced on her crossed knees, Aster flit his eyes back and forth from the road to the paper. When the forest they were traveling through finally came to an end, the hacker exhaled deeply. Several trees later, the forest opened up to a field flat and barren for miles – it was a good thing the moon peeked through the puffy, clouds of snow and lit up the area.

Toothiana instantly forgot about her pacifier problems and snapped her head out the window.

She cooed softly.

What a winter wonderland! This was her first time _ever_ seeing Christmas in the States. She was absolutely awestruck.

It was the kind of things you saw in those Christmas specials back at the tvs in the palace. Yet while she lived in the snow when she came back once school started again, there was something about seeing the snow in the moment of the holidays.

She wanted to smile–

Tooth frowned. To think...last year, Jack might've woken up alone in such a beautiful, lonely place.

Edmund promised he'd drive Jack south to where he _claimed_ he'd woken up – but it wasn't like Jack was very convincing. He said he'd never even tried to retrace his steps in the months he wandered because he couldn't remember what he'd been doing for so long. So for all Tooth and the Aussie knew, it could've been a ditch, at the foot of an abandoned facility...hell, it could've been a lake.

That really bugged and worried her.

Aster meanwhile could care less, hell-bent on driving and reading his sheet.

And Jack...

He rolled down his window.

Tooth squealed and shut her eyes.

"Jack!"

The wind blew a sharp sting of air onto her cheeks and Aster barked indignantly. He cringed away.

"Oy! It's like below freezing, pull that window up!"

But Jack didn't listen to them and felt his muscles relax. The wind swirled around him like a comforting hand of fresh air and he inhaled deeply to get the smell of the endless field into his bones. It elated him, and as he weaved the north wind through his fingers, the torrent's feeling was mutual. Jack visibly piqued with energy as it danced through his skin and his gene's sensitivity.

But as it swirled stronger in and around the car, Aster gritted his teeth.

"Jack!" he finally spat his name. "Come on, what're y–"

_Fwoom!_

Aster's eyebrows shot up like bullets as the paper flew out the window.

"Hey! My bloody–"

He swerved a little and started to veer off the road slowly. When he entered the shoulder, Jack turned to look at him.

"Why're you–"

"Y'idiot, I need that for my work!"

When Aster finally parked the car, he squeezed the bridge of his nose.

"That gene of yours, I swear to–"

"Oh, stop crying," Jack rolled his eyes. "Just request a new c_–_"

"I know! Why'd ya think I pulled over?! So gimme a sec. We only ever send one of everything so this may take some ti–"

Tooth huffed.

Jack turned to looked at her.

"What?"

"See all the trouble you get us into, Jack?"

A second later, she unbuckled herself and hopped out of the car.

They both reacted.

"Princess, wait!" Aster rushed out in a frenzy.

Jack paused for only a second before he opened his door, thinking of North.

"Another _year_ off my life," he sighed angrily.

When they got out, they saw Toothiana jog away from the car to look for the sheet. When she caught it dancing in the wind, she pointed up.

She grinned.

"I see it!" she cried and she hobbled across the last bit of the road to tread onto the field. As her boots went deeper into the snow, Aster was wide-eyed and worried. His tall and lean build looked buff and bulky in his thick coat.

"Thia!" he called. "It's _alrigh'!_ I can get another copy, get back here!"

"But it's right there!" she argued and feeling like she was ten all over again, Tooth skipped into the snow after it. "I'll just get it for you, Edmund!"

"Tooth!" Jack cried and quickly stalked after her into the snow he couldn't feel. "Come back, you crazy–"

Tooth jumped when the wind whisked it her way. But she missed and when it blew away again, she gasped. Her shivers grew.

"Come on, Mr. Wind...Stop playing around, w-we need to leave!"

Aster crossed his arms as he slowed to warm himself. He had to give her credit – she was too nice, even for her own good, but Jack didn't seem to enjoy that at the moment as he walked faster. Tooth may be a princess with her own authority, she may now be his friend (sorta), and ugh, she may be her usual self...you know, shewasbeingsweet–but the point _was..._she was also still in a lot of danger! The bunny rabbit said he'd print out another so she shouldn't bother freezing herself to death.

"Tooth!"

She flew past him.

He sighed. Then with a lazy lift of his hands, he made her stop as a flourish of snow blew into her face.

She squealed past her chattering teeth. And where the heck was her gum?!

"Jack! I know that's you s-so can you just..."

When she finally pushed her hair and earrings from her face, Tooth looked up.

A small thread of wind shot away from the rest of the gust and pushed the paper her way. Aster didn't see Jack's trick past the snowfall but he felt it in the air, plucking at his center. He tilted his head.

On clumsy feet, Tooth stretched up to catch it – and she did!

"Yes!"

When she turned with a small grin, Jack stood several feet away with his gloved hand in his pocket. He dropped his other to dismiss the wind instantly. She inwardly enjoyed the way his bangs and the hood of his blue sweatshirt lifted slightly in the strong wind. Not to mention how his skin seemed to reflect brightly off the snow and the moon.

When she moved through the snow again back to Jack, he reached out to steady her arm.

"Thanks," she mumbled, cheeks red from the cold and...well, you know.

"H...How's your shoulder?"

"It's fine," he sighed but under his keen eyes, he caught her tiny frown at the spot where his leather jacket covered his heart. But when Jack squeezed her arm, Tooth looked up.

"Really," he urged gently. "I didn't say it before but you guys did great...Thanks. Just don't tell the Easter bunny I said that."

Tooth blinked. Was he really...did he really just say that?

_'Apologies and a thank you? Next thing you know the ground is gonna open up!'_

And she instantly brightened, relaxing his insides.

"I won't," she promised then the two walked back to the car.

"See?" Tooth said as she handed him the paper with a smile. "Tha-at wasn't so bad."

Aster took it, thinking the smile was for him – well, it was...partly.

"Thanks, sheila," he smiled down to the short woman watching her pink eyes get caught in the moonlight. "You're not still cold, are you?"

She rubbed her arms in response.

"W-What do you think?" she chuckled and Aster smirked. He nudged his head back at the car, shivering under his coat too.

"I'll forget the bloke's needs and put up the heat for us," and Tooth snickered at that. "Now come on, let's go."

"Yeah, yeah," Jack griped but they pretended not to hear him. Tooth and Aster then turned around and walked away as Jack shoved his hands into his jacket and moved to follow.

But suddenly he froze.

He sensed something.

As he puffed out a billowing cloud of warm air, Jack slowly roved his eyes around, his nerves on high alert. He squinted. Aside from his own breath and heartbeat, the field was silent, deathly silent...

Wasn't it?

'_It's nothing...__It's just a field. Jeez.'_

A cold, lonely, and empty field...

...except for the flicker of blue he spotted in the corner of his eye.

"What the–"

Jack turned and–

"_Gah!"_

–he jumped out of his skin.

Someone, out of nowhere, they...

...they ran _right through_ him.

Jack gasped in pain.

Watching the body phase through him and shoot forward into the snow in front of him, a deep chill entered in his heart

Jack pressed his gloved hand to his chest and panted slightly before he looked up. His wound from the Nightmare's bullet flared slightly from the cold touch. He'd never seen, _never experienced_ anything like that. He felt physically violated! It was like someone dunked a bucket of ice onto his skin and grabbed his heart in his chest cavity!

_'But wh...How?!'_

Jack looked up fervently.

There just ahead of him was a ghost, a blue outline of a man running down the field with two other men trailing behind.

He squinted and leaned forward slightly to catch the faces in the moonlight.

'Who are you?!' 'Get back here!' Jack wanted to demand.

But he opened his mouth, he stopped short.

And he realised...

It wasn't just any ghost.

It...

It was him.

Jack's eyes widened as he watched the spectre of himself dash away in a dark spy tracker's outfit. But when he stepped forward, ready to follow the group, they suddenly faded away into the darkness.

Then suddenly–

_**–was looking down at the ground from a helicopter. It was the same field – barren, dry, and covered in snow. But a split second later, he and three other agents jumped out and dived head-first toward the–**_

Jack walked several feet away from Tooth and Aster.

His eyes were clear, but his head was foggy. He lifted his ungloved hand trying to see past the snow and catch what he was missi–

_**–were almost several feet from the dirt before he shot out his hand. "ID code AG-5019!" he yelled. And as he and his team twisted into tight rolls, the ground opened up and–**_

Jack paused.

_...The ground opened up__**.**_

His heart raced as he acutely heard Tooth shuffle in the snow.

"Jack, what's wrong?!"

At her voice, his outstretched fingers twitched and the wind blew his way. It was too manic for him to control and he watched as the snow weaved itself around and under him. Because of it, Jack didn't hear the princess or the Australian rush forward.

But when Aster put his boot down a foot from Jack, the wind scattered away.

The hacker huffed angrily.

"Oy! You not hear us call you back there?!" he snapped. Toothiana blinked up at him.

"Edmund, i-it's fine really he–_Woah, _Jack! W-What're y–"

Jack spun and looked at her.

"What?" he asked worriedly, looking all around her to make sure she was okay.

But Tooth wasn't looking at _him_.

Her mouth fell partly open in shock.

"What is _that?"_

And he followed her finger. Under his snow-covered boots...there was suddenly a cracked square in the dirt.

The snow must've been blown away by the wind he subconsciously guided – but none of them were fixed on _that _detail.

Aster snapped his head up at the shorter brunette while Tooth nervously tied her hair up into a feathery, high ponytail.

_"Mate,"_ he muttered low and dark. _"...How'd you know this was here?"_

Jack blinked slowly and stared down at the steel door beneath his feet.

The color was draining from his face as he shook his head.

"I...I don't–"

"Because I've never, and I repeat, _never_ have seen this entrance before," the Aussie continued. "I was gonna take you to another one but–"

Tooth whipped her head back up at him. Her hair smacked her cheeks.

"Wait, this is an entrance!? I-Into what?"

"It's–" but Jack paused.

When his vision flickered to the dirt again, his eyes widened. Like a cold touch, his skin started to prickle uncomfortably.

A second later, his vision spliced.

Jack pulled his head up suddenly.

He watched a blue wave wash over the field, outlining something large under the dirt. It was shaped like a network of tunnels and as it vanished, the breath between his lips passed over into the frigid air.

And somehow, he just knew.

"...We're here," he mumbled.

Tooth looked at him warily.

"What? But I thought we...we were looking for a..."

And Jack lifted his head to Tooth.

"We're _here_. This..." his voice dropped low. "Tooth...this is the site of the company. And I almost didn't recognise it...until now."

Tooth froze.

"But uh..." Tooth breathed shakily and looked around. The field looked like an ocean to her. "Guys, h-hello? W-We're in the middle of nowhere. There's not a building for miles!"

She blinked as a chill (similar to the effect Jack just had) started to settle in her lungs.

"That's 'cause it's not on top, sheila," Aster said, voice was low and apprehensive like Jack's. She spun to face him.

"Then where..." but she didn't need to finish as Aster tapped his boot on the frozen soil.

Toothiana looked down into the grass.

She wriggled her toes in her boots, her skin crawling beyond her control. Her entire perception of the field's simple yet picturesque landscape instantly shattered, and the image of a secret world driving several miles down into the earth plagued her mind.

"Merry Christmas, princess," Aster whispered grimly.

And her lungs shuttered under her chest.

...

_12:00 a.m._

Aster hid the car in the forest and Jack erased their tracks. Then they were all back on the field crunching their boots through the beautiful, cakey snow. Jack and Tooth left their bags in the car.

"Do you see a ditch a-anywhere?" Tooth tilted up to see Jack.

He swept his wintry, blue eyes across the field and scowled.

"Do _you?"_

"So then are you even _sure _that i-it _was_ a ditch that you woke up in? Because I mean, y-you found that square pretty easy."

"But remember," and she saw him tighten his glove anxiously. "I wouldn't have if you didn't get out of the car."

"Oh, yeah."

And Tooth nervously nibbled on the inside of her cheek. She refused to chew gum yet for Jack's brooding sake – plus, she wasn't sure how many they had left since the last eighteen hours left pandemonium on his body and on her heart.

"All I know," he continued in his low, husky breath, "is that there was a sign next to me when I woke up so that's why–"

Her eyes bugged out.

"W-Well, why aren't we looking for _that?!_"

"We're here already," he pointed out. Jack then ran a hand through his hair. "Besides, I didn't find that square on just pure luck...My memories are of the company, so maybe North's advice will work better since we've actually managed to find it."

It was hard to argue with _that_ logic. And Tooth couldn't deny the uplifting lilt in Jack's tone – he was anxious and desperate, and she nodded determinedly.

"Alright, let's do this," she said seriously and after pushing up her shoulders to shield against the wind, her fire returned to her stomach.

Eventually the three found the square again but as Jack kicked at the square, Aster glared.

"I didn't know there was one _like_ this," he mumbled. He looked around like a spy would, afraid others might be watching before he knelt down. "I only know of the decoy shacks and warehouses a couple more kilometres away...But I'm guessing you've used this before then, haven't you?"

And after a moment, Jack nodded with a serious face.

Aster then sighed and took off his glove.

"Oy," he said gruffly. "You two help me move the dirt around. Then, leave the rest to me."

...

_Two minutes later..._

Aster did his spies and hacker boys proud as the elevator opened with an ominous _shiiizzz_.

It clearly hadn't been used in a while and the sharp smell of something sterile hit their nostrils.

"Alrigh' mate, you sure you're ready?" Aster perked up and crossed his arms. He looked down into the large mouth of the elevator.

Jack looked back at Tooth and despite the tension that was there, she offered a warm smile and touched his arm briefly.

Then he sighed steadily, adrenaline building inside.

"You don't know half of it, bunnybutt."

And before Aster could get a swipe at him, Jack jumped down without another thought.

"Jack?!" Tooth panicked. "Are you n–"

"_I'm fine,_" he called from the black hole, completely safe thanks to his stealth prowess and easy landing.

_"Just hurry up, you two."_

"Yeah, we gotta move in case any Nightmares show up," Aster agreed and shot Toothiana a quick look. "The beauty of comin' from an abandoned organization is that Pitch doesn't know about this place yet."

And Tooth's energy picked up.

_'That's right...he's right!'_

"Okay," Tooth nodded. "L-Let's do this!"

A second later, she walked to the edge and Aster helped ease her down quickly with his long arms.

"'Ey, she's coming," he grunted and almost immediately, Jack's hands came around her waist.

Tooth tensed for a moment before she let go of Aster and effectively shifted her weight to Jack. Then as he tightened his strong grip, he helped her drop gently the rest of the way.

_"I've got you...You okay?"_ he asked in the dark and Tooth tried not to blush as his hands still gripped her sides.

_"O-Oh yeah, 'cause who doesn't love tiny, d-dark and enclosed spaces?"_

_'Smooth, Tooth.'_

He pulled away instantly but a second later, he turned on a flashlight and shined it in her face.

_"Better?"_

Her warm cheeks didn't escape his gaze as she nodded shakily.

_"Uh yeah, thanks,"_ she said in a sassy tone and took a step back.

They were _way_ too close to be _just friends._

Jack however picked up on her immediate discomfort and frowned.

_"Tooth–"_

_"Really, Jack,"_ she pestered.

His eyes widened for a moment. Then he looked down.

_"You c–"_

_"Stop worrying...This is all for you, remember?"_

And when he looked up again, she nodded encouragingly (although he'd never know about the painful pang in her heart).

_"Okay,"_ he replied and he reached for her hand. Jack then handed her the flashlight.

"_Here, take it,"_ he said and when she grasped it, Tooth shined the yellow light under her chin. She smiled nervously up at him.

"_See?"_ she pointed. _"Still smiling."_

And his fingers twitched in the cold.

A second later, Aster hopped down into the hole and took out his own flashlight. He then tossed his only spare to Jack (who expertly caught it in the semi-dark) and the brunette inspected it in Tooth's light. It was a small, skinny rectangle with a powerful white, beam emitting from it.

"My LX rod," he explained as Jack eyed it dubiously. "Burns brighter, but don't ask me what LX means."

"I didn't plan to."

"Good."

Tooth rolled her eyes. At least they weren't at each other's throats.

After Aster did a sweep of the box with his white light, he exhaled gently and rolled his shoulders. It was too damn cold for his own good.

"You startin' to remember anything else, bloke?" he eyed Jack.

Jack shook his head.

"S'okay," Aster mumbled. A second later, he turned back. "But remember–"

"You two keep _close."_  
"Everyone stay _close."_  
"Stay _close."_

They all paused for a second to stare at each other.

Jack rolled his eyes but Tooth smiled a little under her breath – that was royally weird. Aster's forehead creased for a second before he eyed the elevator again.

"Uh, yeah," he mumbled and a moment later, he turned and hit a panel neither of them had seen.

Then it lit up.

_"Reques-...s'sting identi-f-ficatio..."_

The broken voice made them all freeze.

The computer hadn't been used in months and it was the last of the few that survived. But that didn't mean their skins didn't crawl.

Aster shook his head stiffly. He quickly answered.

"...AG-6091."

Tooth shivered at his stark tone. It was so...professional.

A second later, the voice came back.

"_Sta...area co-code-e."_

"Level: Proj_–_"

_**"...ing Iden–...AG-5019...ode...'e-evel: Pro–"**_

Jack's gloved hand tightened around the flashlight.

He glared at the panel. Was that hi–

"_...Pr pr-rocee..pr–'"_

And it died, instantly.

Jack and Tooth listened to the hydraulics fail in the elevator suddenly. The brunette gritted his teeth.

"_Shit,"_ he muttered but Aster sighed.

He shook his head and looked down, almost a little too calmly.

"Hang on, I got it," he mumbled and knelt on the floor. Taking out his paintbrush beacon again, Aster turned it around and drove it into a panel. When the cover opened, Tooth and Jack shined light on the spot to give him light. Aster looked down hopefully.

"Get ready, you two..." he started as he began to reconfigure wires and hit buttons. "If I remember this right..."

And after a few more seconds, the computer lit up...and so did the entire elevator.

"Yes!"Aster grinned.

But then Tooth gasped.

The ceiling closed over them immediately. All the snow and light from the moon vanished, along with the wind Jack was comfortingly playing with.

_"What do we do?"_ she whispered and Aster mumbled back.

_"We wait."_

A second later–

Lights all around the elevator lit up and nearly blinded her again. She pulled up a hand to cover her eyes gently while Jack stood behind her in case she stumbled back.

"What did you do?" Jack squinted at the energy cells paneling the walls and he frowned. The elevator hummed with life, happy and almost eager to be used again.

And so did the computer's voice as it came back, louder and stronger than ever.

"_Override by the TI-unit accepted.'"_

Jack scrunched his eyebrows.

The voice changed...Wait, what TI-unit?

He looked at the Australian.

"Am I supposed to know that?" But Aster frowned at him.

"Naw, mate," he admitted. "That was a tech analyst code. But I'm only one left who knows that, remember?"

And they said nothing as the elevator suddenly lowered them down into the grotto of the earth.

Tooth kept her head held high but she tightened her hand into her skirt.

_3_

_..._

_2_

This was it.

_.._

_1_

_._

"_Proceed to your sector, agent...And welcome back."_

And when another set of elevator doors opened behind them, they all spun and shined their flashlights.

Tooth's mouth fell open, Jack's eyebrows flew up into his bangs, and Aster only had one thing to say.

"Bloody_ hell..."_

_..._

_3 kilometres underground, time unknown_

Somebody gasped.

But with their hearts all beating the same mile a minute it was hard to guess who.

Because it wasn't small inside.

It was _huge_.

It was...It was a citadel.

The company was the epitome of 'steel' and 'city' and the three shrunk under the sheer breadth of its looming floors and halls. The cold crept into their lungs and the air was cold and stale, but as much as Jack and Aster hated to admit it, the smell was also...nostalgic.

It reminded them that they belonged here, that it was home.

Yeah, home.

Home to the world's most proficient agents capable of going after the most dangerous spies and criminals – and under the echo of her boots and the chill in her bones, Tooth couldn't be more afraid.

Somehow thanks to Aster's override, some of the generators still working underground turned on for him and they watched as blue lights started to light the glass walls and high ceilings. Stationed, steel tables set for computers and paperwork were layered in dust and old fixtures that had fallen, littered the marbled and concrete parts of the floor. There were also at least three more levels up, some with grated floors and others that were solid. But for all the power it exuded and the authority it would demand, the site was abandoned.

It was still cold, empty, and alone.

Aster and Jack moved forward, blowing warm air past their lips like cigarette smoke.

"These were called grandmaster halls," the Aussie recited under a frosty breath. "It was where the company connections units worked."

Toothiana shivered and wrapped her coat tighter around her. She watched as her flashlight danced across every surface like a lighthouse, calling demons out of the dark.

This was the stronghold that housed the world's most powerful people, the GUARDIANs. And with it, it also kept all the dark secrets about defragmentation, the center gene, and the people she'd met in the last four days. It was all so disturbing, especially to see how powerful it might have once been.

"I-I don't think I should be here," Tooth whispered to herself while Jack and Aster moved slightly ahead of her in a daze.

Jack rolled his eyes.

"Do you see a "No Crazy Princess" sign anywhere?" he muttered. "Relax, you're fine."

Tooth glowered under her chattering teeth.

She wanted to kick him anxiously in the shin. She almost did it too until her heart shuttered suddenly.

_'His voice.'_

Tooth paused. She realised his tone had changed.

In fact, when she looked Jack and Aster, so had their entire personas.

They weren't the slow and cautious guys she knew a second ago. As they walked, they looked...she couldn't put an expression to it except...that they looked like they were back to work.

Their walks, their shoulders, the way they carried their heads suggested that the smells and air passing through the hall tossed them back into the positions they once had, the pride they once held.

Toothiana frowned.

'_Wow...they really __do_ _look like spies...'_ she thought to herself and her gaze fell on Jack.

He reminded her of the first night they were together _– _he'd walked away from her in the streets with such dark and confident strides. It was like they were almost back there again.

Tooth looked away, crestfallen and felt a little alone.

"S-So did the government...did they know about this agency? A-About _you guys?"_ she asked gently, her lips still quivering in the cold air.

"Sorta," Aster said gruffly and put on his glasses. As he pulled his flashlight higher, he scowled. The light wouldn't go past the dark, and they only seemed to intensify that cold feeling of abandonment and secrecy.

He glared when he added more.

"The entire company was privately funded," he mumbled and shivered under his coat.

"B-But how does that work? You're a spy agency, sh...shouldn't the Whitehouse and its m-military be–"

"Because we looked small to them," Aster replied. "When you're tiny, people overlook your potential so they didn't expect that we'd have such a large homebase. But see, that was the plan. And we had more outside allies than they would think. So my guess is the Russian government..." Aster began to mumble to himself. "Or a big European benefactor, definitely..."

And Tooth nodded vigorously.

She knew all about being small and being overlooked.

_'And NOW look how many business partners a little island like Punjam Hy Loo has!'_ she thought to herself smugly. _'Not to mention how much ass I'VE kicked!'_

Tooth gulped when Aster started to drift further ahead, much less nervous than the other two brunettes. Without his tall frame, he left her left side wide open to all these new creepy shadows and frigid air.

Her eyes flit everywhere, trying to soak in the magnitude of such a large, complex underground.

'_To think, all these years, nobody else knew how many people worked down here!'_ she thought.

Tooth's eyes then still glued to a spot far away.

The receptionist's desk sat like a tombstone as if to remind visitors of who'd once been there and it freaked the hell out of her...she was _sure_ she saw something move near one of its legs!

"H-Holy crap..."

Tooth moved closer to Jack.

Absentmindedly, she shifted her right gloved hand to Jack's left one. He sensed her and his palm opened to catch hers.

The second their fingers brushed though–

Tooth pulled away.

"_Sorry," _she whispered as polite as she could.

The kiss (and him, with all his shirtless apologies) came to mind – not to mention his fingers and how they helped move away her hair when she puked in the sink.

Then she turned to stare into the shadows and hide her embarrassed face...but Jack still saw it.

He furrowed his brows and tried to reach for her hand again–

"Oy, princess! Come 'ere for a sec!"

In a flutter, she glided over to Aster and leaned down. He had the flashlight between his teeth and was holding a steel tray.

"What'd you find?" she asked, still a little shaky from her near run-in with Mr. Hot Mess again. ÈWhat's with the box?"

"Just wanna show you how it used to be, before all this creepy, crawly, dungeon stuff," he joked past his teeth and Tooth shot him a small, appreciative smile.

He then lifted his glove and wiped away the dust on the logo. Jack was still in the background, eyeing the scaffolds of the place he once knew before he looked at them again.

"Lemme just...argh, _y'bloody_..." Aster mumbled, determined to remove the dirt, "Lemme just rub this spot away."

Jack took a couple steps forward.

"There ya go!" Aster cheered and pulled the flashlight from his mouth and shined the light down on the company name.

"Ohh _wow_," Tooth breathed and her eyes grew wide. Jack lifted his eyebrows and edged a little quicker.

"So ya see?" he spoke. Jack couldn't see the box past their shoulders. "It's–"

"_**FROST!" –another spy ran toward him on a building roof–**_

Jack stopped instantly and spun around.

He stared wide-eyed into the darkness.

Was that a–

A second later, something cold rushed through him again. Jack gripped his hand to his hoodie and thought he inhaled a spirit.

When he made a 180° spin, he saw the outline of himself again.

Outlined in blue with a smirk on his face, the_ other_ Jack was in another spy tracker suit, more designed for colder climates. He had brown hair and looked a few years younger and...

Jack's eyes widened.

He...the other Jack, he...looked like himself before Project GUARDIAN chose him.

_'But__–_'

Jack watched him walk down the long marbled path, but as another ghostly agent joined him, they both faded away. He looked around, feeling a heavy thrum in his gun shot again – but the more he did, the more his heart raced.

Jack's throat suddenly went dry...

Flickers of people, outlined in ghostly blue started to suddenly appear. They looked like the receptionists, assistants, and everyone else who worked in the connections department. But he recognised a couple of field agents by their uniforms – they walked and ran around him like phantoms.

Jack's bit down on his tongue, he didn't say a word. But when he turned silently on his heel, one man in a dark suit phased through his right arm.

Jack jerked away as the cold chill passed.

They were all just projections, images replaying from a broken memory...They–

_Clank!_

Aster dropped the tray back onto the floor. A little more than frantic, Jack snapped his head at him and glared coldly.

_"Keep it down!"_ he hissed, still on edge from his mental demons.

"_Why?"_ Aster bit out. "No one else is here. No one has been here since–"

"You don't_ know _that," Jack cut him off and looked away as the hacker stood up with Tooth.

Aster glared back at him, but didn't say anything. He knew the kid was still trying to piece his memories together. He then pointed down the marble walkway to the set of elevators at the end.

"Come on, we need to keep going," he said lowly and Tooth followed quickly after him. After a moment, she paused and turned back around. Jack was rubbing his head as he walked after them.

The ghosts were gone.

...

_Ding!_

Jack and Tooth lifted their eyebrows when all three elevators opened. They weren't prepared for what they saw.

Each elevator had a different light inside – red, white, and orange.

Where were they going _now?_

The hacker then moved forward into the red-lighted elevator.

"Quick, in here!" he motioned.

Jack and Tooth followed and the second they did, the elevator started to blink. Aster opened his mouth.

"S..." he hesitated before he gulped and tried again. "SI."

And the elevator still worked and sealed shut. It made a sound like it was air-locking itself before the entire wall shifted and swung the doors to the opposite side.

"Woah!" Tooth gasped.

It was like something out of a sci-fi movie. She still couldn't believe that she was here...that she could believe any of this – but it was all real, all there! These kinds of things actually existed and now she was on the few people in the normal world to ever see this again!

But ugh. It made her immensely proud and perturbed at the same time.

As the elevator lowered down quickly, Tooth minded her feet. But when she looked down, she paused.

"Wh-What's...Why is..." At her voice, Jack looked down too. It was still littered with papers.

Tooth raised an eyebrow. She vaguely thought back to Jack's habit of wiping away prints.

'_For a company that's supposed to shutdown, aren't they supposed to erase all traces that they were here?'_

"I think this was the purge."

Tooth twisted her head up to Aster in the red blinking light. He was looking down at her.

"That's what North said they called it before he fled. While the agents were rid of, the company went on an emergency shutdown right after. And all the workers had to disappear."

Tooth bit her lip while Jack listened, his heart wild and barely able to control under his willpower.

"It was to draw attention away from us in case someone found out what they were...doin' to us."

"But _why?_" Tooth urged softly.

In the red light, Aster's deep, green eyes were almost brown and the blue tips of his hair were purple. He ran a hand over the side where his shock of silver hair went down and he sighed.

"Because–"

"Project GUARDIAN was a secret program," Jack finished. "The rest of the company didn't know about us."

Tooth turned to look at him. That was the first time he'd spoken in a bit...but his eyes were clouded with thought.

"Th-They didn't?!" Her mouth hung open after. He was telling her this _now!?_ Why hadn't he told her that before?

"B-But you worked _with _them," she tried to make sense of it all. "How was it that the rest of the people in this giant facility didn't know? So what, you were guys were like super secret level–"

"That's just how it was meant to be," Jack interrupted. "...That's just how we were chosen."

He didn't see her afterwards and stopped talking altogether.

_**–******__a_ floor covered in ice...he was crouching on it...his bare arms were crossed_–_

Jack pulled up his head and made a sharp inhale. That one was new! That–

–_**a postcard...he wrote 'Miss you, snowflake!'–**_

So was _that!_

But he shut his eyes and shook his head...Snowflake? What snowflake? Who...

Jack tightened his fist so hard, he was sure if his skin tone was less pale he'd see it on his knuckle.

And the projections...Was he supposed to watch all this happen, wait until they _all _resurfaced, and then put them together?

'_But I don't have time for that! I–'_

_Ding!_

The other two didn't hear Jack gasp under his breath again when the elevator sounded. And as the doors opened, another man walked through him!

Jack leaned forward slightly as Aster and Toothiana stepped out onto the floor. Looking at Tooth, he watched the blue outline of a regular field agent walk right through her...but she didn't gasp – hell, she didn't even see it, let alone feel it!

A split second later, the ghostly man turned his head over his shoulder and waved his gun at his side.

His eyes widened.

_'Jack, show me how to hit that target next time! And hurry man, the boys downstairs need you!'_

And Jack heard an echo himself laugh loudly from behind.

_'Haha, yeah, yeah! I got it!'_

Two blinks later, the spy faded away and Jack found himself drawing shallow breath past his lips.

He knew that guy...that voice...he'd heard it somewhere...didn't he?!

And he laughed. A real, genuine one that wasn't about inflicting pain on somebody else. _Jack _had _**laughed.** _

He'd...he'd almost forgotten what it sounded like.

It sent a heavy chill up his spine.

...

Jack gripped one side of his head as he stepped out of the elevator after Aster and Tooth. Neither noticed his rough look, too busy staring onto the new floor.

"_W-Where are we?"_ she whispered. Tooth walked alongside Aster, thinking Jack was close behind on his silent feet, but her nerves prickled and her skin erupted with goosebumps. Aster frowned as something akin to misery dripped down to his core. He mumbled under his breath, letting the cold billow out past his own lips.

"We're in SI...Science and Intelligence department."

It looked more like a wasteland.

The once ostentatious and plus-shaped sector of the company was in ruins. Papers were still strewn everywhere, dead computers were knocked over, and glass from (the three didn't _want_ to know what they were used for) littered the floors. It was just a bad feeling overall – the upstairs was powerful and confident and this was left to disaster.

As they walked further down the walkway past the massive IT division, Aster lifted his head sullenly.

There were at least five rows of computers lined up to several large monitors. Yet while he remembered where once he sat before he joined the GUARDIAN program, he was too broken up about the cracked screens and the chairs strewn everywhere. Whoever the tech analysts were after him, it looked like they had to leave in a hurry...before _their _lives and memories were taken.

Tooth said nothing as she watched Edmund's face grow pale and despondent. She frowned and her heart went out for him – it seemed like he really _did_ once work here and she couldn't imagine the pain of his memories coming back to haunt him. But she had to ask...

"How do you remember this place so well, Edmund?" asked timidly. Aster lifted his gaze from the IT division and turned slowly back to her.

"Like frostbite over there, I had to come back here to recover my memories."

Tooth blinked.

"You did?"

"Yup, and the feeling's still the same," he muttered bitterly as he shivered. "I had to work backwards from the top-down, and after a while of wandering through here they just–" he snapped his fingers, "all came back_._ Which is why I'm hoping he'll get a clue soon."

Jack meanwhile was trying to map out the facility in his head. He was also looking for any escape routes in case things got ugly – maybe there was a hallway, albeit a little longer or vent system he could try to break into.

As he walked though, his boot hit something. Turning his flashlight, the ex-op squinted down at the floor.

Surrounding by cracked test tubes oozed of solidified, green liquid. Jack frowned, feeling drawn to one test tube that only had one crack in it. What was the chemical that had once held it?

As he lifted it though, he froze.

–_**a bright light. A ball filled with glitter–**_

Jack's grip on the tube slipped – he was luckily when someone helped him catch it.

"Thanks," Jack started to say but when he looked up...

It was someone he'd never seen before.

It was a woman.

A tall woman with a business face.

"Careful, agent."

Jack gasped, dropping the tube to the floor.

The echoing _pritz!_ of it shattering on the tiles made him jump out of his skin.

A blink later however...

...the woman was gone.

But she hadn't been a ghostly blue outline like the others, he'd been real, he...Jack could still feel her breath on his face. She was _right there!_

"Argh!" Jack rubbed his head.

"J-Jack?"

He looked up and saw Tooth shining her light on him.

"You o...You okay?"

And Jack moved around the broken glass and moved to her shivering form.

"Yeah," he mumbled with a steady look. "Don't worry, let's just keep going. And keep warm, okay?"

He covered his own nervousness with concern for her but Tooth wasn't buying it. He looked like he was being haunted.

And for all his cool and cautionary saunter, she could do nothing but stare and bite her lip.

...

As they walked through deeper into the lower-ceiling labs, Tooth shone her flashlight on glass walls and eyed them fearfully.

She really wanted to link arms with Jack and stay close because the SI looked horrible. It was like something out of Resident Evil. She'd seen all the movies and watched a few of her dorm mates play freaky games like Bioshock. Next thing, a terrible zombie or a mental freak would rush at her from inside the room and she'd have to blow its brains out before it infected her.

And she paused for a second.

Jack watched her go into her coat pocket for some gum faster than she'd ever done in her life.

_'Oooh, I am freakin' screwed if that happens! I'm not Alice, I'm just norma–'_

"You actually still have some gum left?"

She jumped a mile in the air at Jack's voice.

"Cr-Crap, Jack!"

"Sorry," he scowled. "I just thought by now you ate it all."

"Hey!" She started to chomp anxiously. "I h-have _some _self-control, pal!"

'_Psh, yeah but not when he's sleeping...Dammit, Tooth!'_

She tried to fight down a blush when Jack extended his hand. He tried to ignore that the word 'pal' left a bitter taste in his mouth.

"Can I have a piece?"

She didn't see how shaky his fingers were in the dark but at least he was still alive, here, and at least...they were okay.

Toothiana quickly gave him one, smiling under her pink cheeks then asked Aster if he wanted a stick. She handed him one too and soon, all their stress levels decreased.

When the taste of the peppermint seeped down her throat and into her stomach, Tooth's nerves instantly unwound and her heart beat relaxed. She sighed through her nose gratefully and after a quick gulp of saliva, she looked around a little more bravely.

"So why are we here in SI?" Tooth finally asked. "We aren't we touring the other_ thousand_ sectors of the company?"

"Actually there's only five sheila, including this one," Aster answered, chewing under his voice. "We're here specifically though because...because this is where the GUARDIAN program was founded."

Her pink eyes grew wide. When she didn't say anything, he continued.

"The Center gene was created in SI a long time ago. And after Project GUARDIAN was established, our unit was hidden in a subdivision underneath from the rest of the company."

"And you got away with it? From other spies?"

"That's why it was _here._ Scientists aren't spies. They don't snoop around like the rest of us."

As Tooth nodded, Jack moved forward. No one picked up on his washed-out expression or his twitchy fingers and his calm voice hid it well.

"But how're we gonna get to it?" he asked pointedly. "It's like a maze, remember?"

Aster's brows lifted on his head.

"'Ey, you remembered?"

The brunette nodded slightly as he looked through the glass walls of the laboratories they passed.

"Yeah a bit," he answered for Aster's sake since he couldn't see the guy in the dark. He missed Tooth's small smile as she looked up at him.

Still, Jack's skin crawled under his turtleneck. He'd never felt so out of control with his own body. He was afraid that more blue projections would show up.

Jack gritted his teeth and looked away. The shadows not hit by the flashlight or its reflection in the glass cast over his face and darkened his troubled expression.

His memories were dropping like seeds, planting more stories in his head than he cold grasp. That face, those ghosts, that postcard...

And that woman...Was seeing...Was seeing _her_ supposed to happen?

Jack needed to ask the bunny.

He had to–

Aster hit the end of the SI unit and before they knew it, a wide platform where three new elevators were seen.

But as Tooth gulped...Jack paused.

His eyes immediately lit up.

Something inside him panged with sudden energy.

"I...I think I know this part," he mumbled and Aster nodded.

"You should, mate," he muttered back. "It's how we get to our division."

A second later, he walked up to the center one and pushed the button. He felt a shiver crept through his coat.

"This is how it was designed," he continued. When all the elevators opened, Tooth realised, they were all lit blue.

She raised an eyebrow.

"Blue represented the blokes upstairs, sheila," Aster explained. He jerked a thumb to the very high ceiling. "It meant you were going up to administration. So whenever workers saw agents go through blue doors were considered to be high ranking ops. So no one messed with us or ever questioned why we were down here."

When he stepped through the doors, Jack immediately followed while Tooth moved on wobbly feet. She felt a little unworthy being in the spot only reserved for the company's best.

"Tooth, hurry up," Jack sighed and she put a hand on the inside of the elevator.

"_I'm_–Oh no!"

The elevator started to blink, it was ready to close...

...and the tail of her skirt was caught on a rusty metal pipe. A split second later, the doors started to close on either side of her.

"Princ–"

"Wait, _no!"_

Jack didn't say a word.

He rushed out and pulled his knife from his boot. In one motion, he swooped down to cut the edge of her skirt and pivoting on his foot, he used the momentum of his spin to shove Toothiana through. Jack watched her smack into the wall. Then with a burst of wind at his heels, he surged forward.

The second the edge of his hood passed over the threshold, the doors shut swiftly – and he crashed right into Toothiana.

"Oof!"

Aster eyed them worriedly as they both panted and coughed out.

"J-Jack!" She instantly turned and clutched his arms, puffing warm air into his face. She felt like this was punishment for ignoring him earlier.

Tooth wanted to give him space so he could figure out his memories but she was also a little selfish about how her feelings still ached with him basically friendzoning her. And now look what happened – they almost got separated again!

"Y-You okay?" she gulped.

"Yeah," he grunted and gripped her back_._ "Are_ you?"_

She mumbled in response. His concern washed over her like a blanket– but it was just too bad, Aster saw it differently again.

"Oy! Get off her, Frost!" he snapped. "You're crushing her!"

He realised that he and the princess were getting along pretty well, _really _well in fact. She kept asking him questions and sticking close to him...and then Ice Prince over there had to toss her around again like a ragdoll and now she was scared. It was no wonder she stuck close to him as they walked through the company. When Jack finally moved away, he sighed in relief.

"You're lucky you made it," he grumbled softly. "These elevators are the only way back to the main floors, mate."

_Shick!_

As they all regained composure, the elevator air locked again, swinging the entire steel entrance around in a 180° position.

Their eyes widened.

The elevator doors moved another 90° and were facing Jack on her right. It then expanded into one giant elevator, opening up all three for more space. The blue lights pulsed wildly and dropped faster than they were prepared for. When it came to a complete stop, Tooth caught her breath.

"H-Holy crap!"

Suddenly a panel lit up in front of them. No one said a word for a while.

Aster frowned.

"Th...This is as far as I've gone," he finally mumbled and Tooth noticed that his teeth had started to chatter together. The cold was finally getting to him.

"W-Why?"

"I remembered everything at this point...and I didn't want to go in."

"So I guess..." Jack eyed him, "for my sake, we'd all better be prepared."

"Yeah mate," Aster sighed, not at all feeling for a fight with Jack. "So be ready."

Aster took off his glove and pressed his skin flat against scanner.

Nothing happened until the monitor lit up. And spoke.

"_Lomodoveen gret skrakya."_

And both guys, (along with Tooth and her gift) understood.

_("Release your gene.")_

Aster looked between the both of them and exhaled. Slowly, he released the same energy in the gene as he did cracking an egg, but he didn't shatter the surface.

The scanner confirmed his DNA and asked for a second confirmation. Aster opened his mouth–

"_**...'is crime lord is going down tonig...Y–ou going with the gunne...**__**(Луна)**__** STATE ID COD–" Jack stepped forward, his face emotionless and all-business. He shot someone a dark look on his right before he tightened his gloves and spoke into the screen–**_

Jack shoved the Aussie away from the computer screen, his glare hazy and cold. There was so hesitation in his mouth when he spoke.

"Bretyam shad..._5019 FROST."_

And the computer confirmed.

"_Aran polmeenya agent."_

Toothiana gasped and Aster raised his eyebrows.

"_Jack..." _he started and Tooth's heart picked up speed.

"H-How did you..." she tried to finish for him but her mouth stopped working too. So she shined her light on him instead.

Tooth sucked in a breath.

He looked...well, the princess stared at him enough to recognise it...something was definitely wrong with him. At that moment, she wanted to reach out and touch his arm but suddenly a loud _bong!_ went off.

Then all three elevator doors opened as one.

"_Welcome back to the core.'"_

...

_The GUARDIAN's core_

They gasped under their breath.

When it opened, a cold chill blew out into the hall, Aster and Jack's systems woke up. For a moment no one said anything and Tooth looked up at both of them to see what was wrong. She'd expected both or at least _one_ of them to move. They were planted on their feet.

"You guys okay?" she asked with creased eyebrows.

"It's alright, princess," Aster huffed and looked down at Jack.

"Yeah, let's go," he muttered and running a hand through his bangs he and the Aussie crossed over the threshold with the confidence and courage they were chosen for. This was where they belonged to for years, and it was something they kept hidden from the rest of the spy agency above.

But Tooth had to wonder...How could a facility underground have so much activity and how did they all just vanish?! Surely over ten thousand people must've been actively in the company before it shutdown. It was bigger than the School of Dentistry back at FayU! If they were able to come up with a new gene like the one Jack and Edmund carried around–

_The gene they carried around._

Tooth stopped.

The sounds of her boots scuffing the floor made the two pause and turn.

"Tooth? What's wrong?" Jack asked. His eyebrows were scrunched together and he took a slight step toward her.

After she blinked several times to the floor, she looked up at them.

"You said the Center Gene was created...so you...both you, _all _of you..."

Their foreheads creased as she finished.

"You had it...put in you?"

Aster frowned.

"Tooth..." Jack said. He ran his hand through his hair. "W–"

"_Did you?"_

He looked up at her directly in the face. Her worry was like painting for the world to see and he couldn't find the words. Why did she have to worry about him all the time?

He shut his mouth and she got her answer.

"H..." she was almost to ask. _"How?"_

But Aster shifted on his right foot.

"We promise, we'll talk about this later. But not now, not here," he said then kept moving and Jack moved with a fleeting glance at her frown.

Now _he_ was hiding something, and Toothiana couldn't understand what...or why.

...

It was cold.

Much colder.

None of them was sure how many more kilometres they'd traveled underground to get down to where they stood.

But the sight...it was worth it.

The GUARDIAN's core was just a little bit smaller than the other sectors yet still housed a size big enough to be a football stadium. But it was designed different to the rest of the company. It smelt, even _felt _different as they walked in. With a more intimate air, the core was more culturally savvy. It was lined with symbols and scripts they could barely see in the light and left behind something that was more European, more Eastern, but Jack and Tooth couldn't put their finger on where or how they knew.

It just _was._

Jack threw his head up as he scoured the area.

It also wasn't straight and angular, and they were surprised to see that its walls were curved in a circle. Circles meant unity, never-ending cycles...so unlike the square and box shaped sectors of the rest of the company.

Tooth's mouth fell open and her fingers twitched. She wanted to ask a million questions again, but refrained when she realised how silent Aster and Jack were.

But come on, they had good reason.

The familiar (circular) grandmaster hall brought on a feeling of depression, and Aster knew that if Jack could remember, he would be thinking the same thing. This giant room was _never_ empty, never quiet. In their memories, much like the rest of the company, this place was alive, with people dashing everywhere with weapons going off in test facilities and vehicles screeching in faraway lots.

Seeing it as a dead zone now and forever was something hard to really stomach. And it wasn't like they ever had a formal goodbye or anything – they were never even told this would happen. Everything seemed normal as usual then...

"_**...you sure it's...absolutely–just a qui-ick...Wh...Wait–"**_

Jack's vision flickered again.

A blue wave cascaded from where he stood, out and across everything ahead him. In his silence, he watched as it briefly lit up everything across their core like it did up in the field. When he finally saw what the entire expanse looked like, Jack froze in his walk.

He remembered...he remembered–

The ex-operative heard a faint bell go off in his memory.

'_...Hunter division to J9...'_

He watched as the ghostly blue outlines of a few GUARDIANs rushed on his right just past a group having a team meeting.

'_...Midnight division to T4...'_

A second later, a larger group of GUARDIANs appeared on his left.

He turned and almost gasped.

They all went through Aster and Toothiana. He almost felt sick to his stomach as a large agent the size of a giant passed right through the tiny princess.

Then finally...

'_...Gunner division to M0...'_

Jack paused.

He saw, far off in the distance, the floor above was outlined in blue. He didn't need his flashlight to see it and watched as the other Jack flipped over the railing and landed on the ground thirty feet below. He used a wind that wasn't there to cushion the fall like it was nothing before he sprinted across the hall. His hair was white, his expression hard, and he produced a long weapon in his hand before he took off.

Jack wanted to follow but a few seconds later, they all started to disappear again. Then it was like nothing ever happened.

Aster finally exhaled shakily.

"We used this place once...to help people."

Tooth looked up at his shadowy head and Jack frowned up at him too. It felt like a story was coming, the same that maybe Tooth had told him in that alley all those days ago. So they walked in silence and listened when Aster continued.

"We were the best of the best from all over the world...and did the operations that many agencies would think impossible. We _did_ the impossible..."

Tooth pursed her lips. She nodded as she caught the pale skin of Jack's fingers flexing at his side.

"You did...you guys did..." she mumbled. "So why were you shut down?"

"Hopefully _something_ in here will tell us that," Jack said. "Maybe something that will help me remember all of this..."

Aster eyed him from the front.

"Y'still don't remember anythin'?"

When Jack shook his head, Aster frowned a bit.

Weird, it should've all come back to him already, especially now that they were actually standing _inside _the GUARDIAN's Core again.

But he kept his lip shut tight though, thinking of North.

"_...is not my place to say...the memory must figure out by self, or risk mashup..."_

So Aster stopped bugging jack and sighed again. He shined his light up ahead of him.

"Let's split up and cover more ground," he suggested but Tooth looked at him like a crazy person.

"Are you sure that's safe?"

"Princess, this place is cactus. No one's been down here since us. Since the last day for either Jack and I."

She frowned but shined her light on Jack's jacket so she wouldn't blind him.

"But what if you get another memory flash and decide to–"

"Don't worry, Tooth," he offered gently. "We have each other."

Slowly, she eased her light on his shoulder and stared the outline of his jaw and the shadow over his bangs. She frowned.

"Okay," she then exhaled and looked up where his eyes would be. _"Be careful."_

And they both thought of Moscow.

Jack nodded and she watched his lips move with concern.

"You too."

"Both of you holler should you find anythin' or need help," Aster called behind him, not seeing their intense exchange. Immediately after, he turned to Jack and pretended to touch the tip of his invisible hat. Then when he put a hand to his ear, the brunette nodded, understanding the CRE hand signal instantly.

_Watch_. and _Listen._

He then watched Aster walked away.

Jack shined his light on Tooth one more time, and after she waved half-heartedly, he turned right and kept on going alone.

Tooth stood there for a brief second, watching both his and Aster's light walk away in different directions.

She sighed under her breath, feeling the cold seep in. Then she moved left and disappeared further into the darkness.

This was maybe a bad idea...but they'd find more answers apart.

...

Aster tightened the grip on his flashlight several times the farther he walked.

He couldn't believe it, he was actually _back_. Back in the company, back in the Core (or 'moon' as they called it in Луна). As he crossed the main walkway, he twisted his head at all the hallways lining the walls. He read the Guardian Cyrillic above each.

The more he read, the more his pride returned to him.

He was chosen to be a GUARDIAN after working the upstairs for a few years. After half his time spent on reconnaissance missions and as a tech analyst, he had a steady progress report that the boys upstairs were impressed with.

He felt he had a lot to prove as a GUARDIAN and still did. He even remembered always wanting the toughest jobs under stress to help out some of the other agents not in his division, and for that he was a senior analyst on several missions.

Aster smirked tightly under the cover of the shadows. Yeah, so he demanded respect from everyone too. But hey, considering the way he grew up and what his skills were, it was sorta expected.

Liked his job of protecting and watching over people. Even now he was still doing it and he thought it was something he'd do all his life.

Now all they needed to do was get Jack over there back on track and then maybe...he'd give some of that respect back to the brunette.

As he reached over and touched things with his glove, he vaguely heightened his senses to watch for Jack and Tooth as they both separated, making sure he was always aware of where they were.

He sighed stressfully, wishing he had two eggs – one to crack and one to paint – to distract and practice with.

"I better do that when I get back..." he mumbled tiredly.

...

_Left side of the GUARDIAN's core_

No matter what Tooth tried, she cringed every time her boot clunked on the floor. It echoed like a clap all around the Core and she hated herself for it.

Jack and Aster were like phantoms, doing one heck of a job of keeping their movements silent so why couldn't she?! It sounded like she was all alone.

Tooth chewed her gum delicately, trying to hear over the sound of her jaw chomping. To think Jack came here to work every day, where North came, and Aster and Phil and...

She gulped.

Shining light on one open corridor, she poked her head in and her heart was raced. She was so scared and felt every inch every nerve in her twist violently. But she refused to move back.

"A princess makes her own decisions," she recited under breath – and fear would not influence her.

The hall was large and just one of many. Inside this one was a set of smashed treadmills, a tank big enough to hold a whale, three small rooms made of bulletproof glass (she saw the cracks in it to guess), an enormous mat, and a open freezer all the way in the back that her light barely flashed on it.

What probably scared her the most though were the scorched marks that stained the concrete – that, and the craters in the walls.

Her heart dropped into her stomach.

"This is a giant test facility..." she mumbled.

In that moment, as she gazed at the destruction of the physical assessment unit and then back again into the grand hall, that she realised just how powerful GUARDIANs were.

'_And Aster said there were more...Hundreds. To think they've been protecting the rest of the world as spies for years!'_

Tooth then gulped and walked in further.

...

_Right side of the GUARDIAN's core_

Jack rubbed his eye and said nothing but it was difficult. He wanted to rage out with every fibre of his being. Under his clothes, his skin crackled and his teeth grinded in his mouth.

His gene was going off like mad.

It prickled as familiar smells and senses took over him like it _knew_ where it was, where he _was_...and for all of Jack's confusion he couldn't stop it – so it threatened to consume him.

The second Aster's flashlight finally moved away from his general direction, Jack panted under his breath. His brain felt like it would split in two and he didn't want them, especially Toothiana, to see.

At least, until he could figure out _some_ piece of it himself.

He had been searching for answers all alone for almost a year. And now, being here _finally_ in the place where it all started, it was still the part of him that wanted to solve it on his own.

As Jack crossed a corridor threshold and walked into an abandoned room, he exhaled sharply.

He reached out to steady his suddenly shaky feet – but then he froze.

Because instead of feeling nothing...he touched something cold.

Smooth and really cold, and he didn't know what to do...

Jack pulled away instantly.

Blinking in the dark, he pulled up his flashlight, and what Jack saw was probably the most disturbing thing any of the three would come across.

His breath caught in throat.

Jack was face-to-face with giant test tubes, _sleeping pods_. Ten of them actually.

Five were standing upright against the wall and the other five were lying on top and hooked up to medical platforms.

"What...H-How did I..."

Jack shook his head, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. He couldn't even _remember! _He–

Jack jumped back abruptly.

Suddenly, as real as the woman had been earlier, he saw a man was floating inside one of them, blue water suspending him in a light stasis as Jack stood in front of him!

Jack moved his flashlight flew around in a frenzy. Was he the only seeing this?!

His mouth fell open in desperation.

"I...But I...I mean, I've _seen_ this all before, I know I have...But wh–"

He turned back slowly to the man. But Jack's heart raced, beating hard and fast like an angry drum.

The man in the tube vanished and everything was the same.

"No! Wh–"

"_**Hold him for six hours!"**_

"_**Gene is responsive, doctor. Would you–"**_

Jack clutched a handful of his hair. He backed away.

He needed to get out.

"_**Pull him out! Pull him OUT!"**_

"_**A-Are you sure this new procedure is safe?"**_

His blood pounded in his ears.

"_**Don't worry, Jack, it's just a follow-up. Then you c–"**_

"O-Oh my god."

Jack felt physically ill and gritted his teeth. He shut his eyes. Then–

"'_Ey, you two!"_ Aster voice echoed. _"Come back, let's do a review!"_

Perfect timing.

Jack threw the room one more, cold look before turned on his boot's heel and walked away.

...

When they all regrouped at the centre again, Aster crossed his arms. His LX rod was on a table behind him, shining a brighter signature than before to give them enough light for comfort.

Tooth was scratching at her turtleneck in anxiety as she came up to him.

"Y-You okay?" she asked and he nodded slowly.

"Yeah," he replied shakily. Tooth said nothing back and reached over. She touched his arm and squeezed it lightly for comfort. He put his hand over hers and returned the gesture as Jack came back.

"Anythin' mate?" Aster mumbled going into bodyguard-protector mode again as the brunette's slightly washed out expression made him on edge. He didn't want them to have another violent episode like the one they'd had back at the Warren.

Jack opened his mouth to talk but Tooth reached over and rubbed his arm–

He instantly flinched, thinking it was another ghostly projection.

Tooth's eyes grew wide with worry.

"Jack, what's wrong?"

He looked around almost nervously before his eyes grew hard again.

"I think I'm seeing things," he said sounding like an idiot but Tooth frowned and Aster leaned in with more interest.

"Memories?"

"I–" Jack subconsciously reached for Tooth's hand and clutched it. "I-I'm not sure..."

Tooth stood there between them, hanging on to both men with a grim look. The large room made them feel cornered, the silence was so loud, and the cold air made their skin flare up – all the juxtaposition of it was uncanny...had the room been designed to do that to people? To test the agents?

"Should we leave?" she asked nervously but they both shook their heads.

"No, not yet," Jack said and looked down at her.

And Aster opened his mouth to say something–

_...Beeeep!...Beep!_

They all froze. Their blood ran cold waiting for more sounds – but nothing came after that.

Tooth's grip on Jack and Aster tightened.

"But I thought..." she breathed. "I-I thought you guys said there was nothing down here. _Nothing!_ I th-thought this was all–"

"I know, sheila, _I know,"_ he urged gently and patted her arm before he moved ahead. Jack slipped his hand out of Tooth's and stalked behind her as they moved.

He and the Aussie used their acute hearing to remember where the echo had bounced from – and it led them to one of the farthest halls.

Aster's face immediately grew dark.

"Oy, I know that one," he muttered gruffly.

"Let's go," Jack then narrowed his eyes and they picked up speed.

There was a faint light glowing far in the distance but it was neither blue nor green – it was white and it seemed to be brightest thing in the hall.

"I-Is it safe?" she whispered.

"Dunno," Aster whispered back. "But...I used to work in there. I know what's inside."

Their steps were silent and their breaths were uneven in the frigid air as they tiptoed their way across the final metre of the main hall.

But they didn't stop.

...

The computer room was lined up in three rows, eight in each. Some were intact and others destroyed, but they were all covered in a layer of dust. Aster eyed them warily and Tooth was afraid to go near any.

Who knew that a little over twelve months earlier, they all had information on each GUARDIAN agent...their stats, their bios, their progress reports...She didn't want to bear witness to any of the horrific things that might've–

"_Wait what's..."_ Jack faded out and Aster's curiosity piqued.

"_W-What's wrong?"_

"_Look there,"_ Aster whispered and pointed ahead. As Tooth squinted her eyes and tilted her head, she gasped under her breath.

All the computers, though dead and aging, were sleek and highly-advanced for their time...but off in the distance...

...there was one computer, a little older than the rest and sitting at the end of the last row. It was just as dusty and neglected as the rest, it had no purpose anymore.

But the thing was...it wasn't just old...

...it was on.

And as the bright light from its screen started to shine on Edmund, Jack, and Toothiana, the more they inched closer they realised...

...it looked like it had been on for days...weeks...

Maybe, even _months._

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "Solid State Playmate" – Celldweller


	27. The Final Penance of Project GUARDIAN

**The language mashup will appear in the next chapter so thanx for offering all your help again, guys!**** (:**** It's been so nice PMing those of you one-on-one! Check ur inboxes for my last replies! And to everyone else, thanx as always for enjoying the ride. ****Now good luck – you're gonna need it. *****Note: You guys are lucky! I ALMOST went abroad for a development exchange program this month, but it's been bumped to next year!**

* * *

Jack's breath fogged up his vision as they all crept together slowly toward the computer, wary of the yellow and bright lights that twinkled underneath.

When Aster neared it first he set straight to work looking around it while Jack and Tooth stood idly by. They weren't sure what to do.

"Why would this be here?" Jack murmured as his expression grew dark.

"H-How old is this thing?" Tooth muttered. She swept her finger across the top to catch dirt and grimaced when it coated her glove.

"Maybe a couple years but g–"Aster stopped gripping the motherboard and tilted it back into place. With his hand splayed over the top of it, he looked up.

Jack and Tooth froze at his shocked expression.

"What?" the princess asked nervously but Aster found it hard to look her (and even Jack) in the eye. So he looked down at a spot behind them – but they noticed his green eyes were large and in disbelief.

"This hard drive, it..."

Jack took a step forward.

"What's wrong with it?"

"This system it's...it's at least over ten years old," he finally mustered and looked up at him. Tooth furrowed both her eyebrows.

"Why?" she asked but her question was more of a figurative that everyone was thinking. The boys didn't need (or want) to answer.

"I've seen these models before, heavy build and outdated but they pack a punch. Most crime lords and drug distributors have them on standby. You know that right, Jack?"

And the brunette nodded. He moved around Tooth slightly to lean down and check the external appliance too.

"Can't remember from my days as an agent. But yeah, I've seen them recently," he whispered bitterly – his mind instantly went to Pitch's warehouse, the computer back at the Leprechaun's Den, and the other lowlife criminal rings he poked around in during the past months.

He tightened his glove subconsciously on his LX rod.

"But why would one be down _here?"_

He didn't notice that when he gritted his teeth, Aster did the same. The two were shooting the PC a dark glower.

"Dunno...but that screen is startin' to freak me the hell out."

"You gonna check the OS?"

"Yeah mate, help me find the processor..."

As they continued to mumble to themselves, Toothiana blew a cold breath from her nose. She shivered painfully when the cold bristled inside her lungs until she decided she needed to move.

_'Keep warm...just like Jack said.' _And her heart fluttered a bit in her chest. _'Oh god, not now.'_

So Tooth stepped aside and gave them room while she waited. She then lifted herself on her toes and dropped down anxiously but after doing it several times, she stopped. It only made her anxiety worse since the heel of her boots echoed around the room.

It was still cold and dark and with every glance it seemed to become more menacing. Why were there still computer screens left...yet _no _other piece of furniture or object in sight? Everything else that might've been there was gone but to purposely leave this creepy reminder of the scientists and spies' work felt like a _huge_ no-no.

The princess bit her lip and decided to edge closer to the computer. The screen was still bright and blank like a dormant television.

She pursed her lips. Why would someone deliberately leave on just _one_ computer in an abandoned facility, _miles_ underground? Something was wrong, something was–

Tooth blinked.

She noticed the keyboard of the computer sitting under the monitor in semi-darkness. With a quick glance at the two mumbling spies, Tooth pushed her hair behind her ear and peeked closer at it.

"What the..." she whispered to herself.

The red keyboard looked normal from far away, but when she shone her light on it and glared at the keys, she realised...it was in another language.

Tooth tilted her head.

She'd never seen symbols like those before. _'Is it Russian?_'

But the more she looked, the more she realised it couldn't be. Sure, some letters looked round and sharp like Cyrillic but the rest were wispy and jagged like clouds and lightning.

Was it the same language in that strange tongue Jack spoke in just minutes earlier? She remembered how rich his tone sounded. It was almost gentle compared to when he spoke in Russian...but was that how you read and said the language? It made her scared – but after two nervous blinks, she swallowed the nausea down again.

Toothiana's weird ability to translate any language kicked in and a second later, a light went off in her head. Tooth smacked her lips and touched the keyboard.

_"I wonder..."_

She had no clue what she was doing or what would happen. But seeing as one button said _'resume'_ in that squiggly, Slavic text, she figured she'd give it a shot.

With a twitchy finger, she pressed the red key.

The screen flickered and Jack caught it in the corner of his eye.

His eyes widened.

_"What're you doing?"_ he hissed and a second later, Jack's hand was gently grabbing Tooth's arm. _"Did something happen?!"_

_"No!"_ Tooth shook her head, _"I just...turned it on again."_

Aster pulled his head up at that.

_"You did?"_ he mumbled hopefully and a second later, he moved away from the hard drive and sat in the chair in front of the screen. The computer did nothing but blink for a few seconds while they all waited.

Aster thought it would lock down again.

Jack expected it to explode.

Tooth assumed it would send them to a homepage with all the organization's info on it.

But finally, when the monitor lit up again, it proved all of them wrong.

On the screen was a readout that was still active. It showed pictures and a short command next to each of their statuses.

Faces...

A _long _list with the faces of people, serious and sharp as they stared back.

And it was labelled something.

K.O.S.

Jack blinked several times then crossed his arms.

"What the hell?" Aster mumbled and Tooth's mouth fell open. She couldn't stop herself from leaning down and pressing the down button frantically. Jack and Aster didn't protest even when she started to whisper under her breath. The cold swept into her throat and she coughed a little.

"W-Who are these people? And what's a KOS?" she said, so afraid under her skin. "H. Titanosomos, L. Grimm...P. Piper, M. Hatter, S. White–"

_**"******__*_panting*...'ite!... gah!"

Jack took a sharp inhale.

_**"******__..._AGAIN! Punch it! Argh! Speed 19–Come on, FASTER AGENT!"

When the memory stopped, he shook his head.

The voices still echoed with Tooth's and he was ashamed to admit that he was starting to hate them more than he wanted them. Jack blinked several times and looked around the dark for a second.

_**"******__..._newest missi–JACK!"

'_Not now!' _he cried in his head. _'Don't come now!'_

Tooth kept reading, fleeting desperately through last names and aliases. It was so weird, these people all looked so ordinary. Everything from their styles, their dull expressions, and their dark clothes made her a little disappointed. Where _these _GAURDIANs agents?

'_Then again, if they were spies, it would explain why Jack sucks the fun out of everything!'_ Then she sighed and went back to scrolling down.

"There must be something we can do to understand this!"

As she floated her finger around, Jack and Aster mumbled under their breaths too. They couldn't wrap their heads around the names or why no other information was given. What kind of sick joke was this? Were they _trying _to run electric bills just to piss off the government?

Suddenly, Toothiana lifted her hand and brushed another key. She wasn't prepared when it lit up instantly and–

"Crap!" she jolted and Aster nearly fell out of his chair (again!) from her jumping.

"Oy, what's wrong?!"

"I-I think I pressed something but I..."

When Tooth looked down again, a small circle near the top of the red keyboard was glowing turquoise. She paused.

The light was calling out to her gently. Something or _whatever_ that ran its battery...was like a warm fire to her insides.

She cooed softy. Jack eyed her funny.

"What's up wi–"

Without waiting for Jack or Aster's cue, she reached up and held her hand over it.

"Tooth, wait!" Jack cried. "Don't–"

Something pricked her palm from underneath and she cried out.

"Ouch!" she screamed and yanked her hand away. Jack instantly grabbed for it and pulled off her glove. In the center of her palm was a tiny dot where blood started to seep out – it reminded Jack too much of her breakdown in Wales.

Aster's green eyes widened with fear.

"WHAT HAPPENE–"

A second later, the glowing circle died down and a deep ringing was heard.

_Center gene identified._

"Wait, _what?_" Tooth gasped and the screen flickered white for a moment before a program started to show.

The boys eyed her nervously as Tooth cradled her hand to her chest.

"But...B-But I don't have a center!"

"Maybe it was a just a malfunction," Jack responded nervously. His eyes hardened and he glared back at the screen – the princess didn't need to deal with any more shit like this.

"Yeah, sheila," Aster agreed. "This system's a decade old, it's probably fried by now and'll take anythin'."

"Oh yeah," she breathed a sigh of relief. "That's probably it."

But it was still freaky, and Tooth chose not to look at the weird metal needle going back into the keyboard. She gritted her teeth at the vile invention.

Brushing off the weird occurrence, the three then waited until the screen showed the names again.

G. Martin– Recon  
S. Qi – Weapons  
J. Kjeldsen– Rescue  
P. Panner – Aerial Unit

Then suddenly...the names flickered and changed.

MARCH HARE – Recon (PENDING)  
YEH-SHEN – Weapons (PENDING)  
THUMBELINA – Rescue (PENDING)  
PETER PAN – Aerial Unit (PENDING)

They all froze. They watched as suddenly, the people's hair colours and eye colors changed too! With strange streaks of colors here and there and the occasional abnormal eye color, Tooth and Aster couldn't help but feel uncomfortable. After Toothiana put her glove back on, she read out the names.

"O...O. Bric: FATHER TIME, K. Sullivan: SUPERMAN...P-POSEIDON, NUTCRACKER, JAB JAB–"

"Princess, stop! Just_ stop _now!"

She let her cold fingertips stop completely over the button.

"Sorry, I–I..." And Tooth shook her head a little.

_"O-Oh my god,"_ she breathed and turned to look at the two boys. _"Are these..."_

They were just waiting for her to say it.

"...They _were_ GUARDIANs."

And their silence made her lower her head to the floor.

"Th-They're all the previous agents who'd been injected with the Center Gene." Tooth then scrunched her eyebrows in deep worry and looked between them.

Her expression was earnest and desperate, desperate to reach out to them.

"D...Did you know _any_ of them?"

Aster rubbed the side of his hair where the silver streak ran down – it prickled slightly. He frowned deeply as he gestured Tooth to pull up the KOS. He pointed at a Persian with a goatee – his codename was THE GENIE.

"I knew _him_ from the TI-unit...but..."

When he trailed off, Tooth grew worried.

"B-But why are they on this list when you've all been disbanded?! I thought–"

When she stopped and suddenly leaned in close, Jack copied – they both on the same train of thought.

"Scroll up," he muttered starkly. Tooth nodded and pushed the arrow sporadically while something kept assaulting the back of Jack's mind.

_'Please...please don't be...'_

As she pressed the red key anxiously and muttered their names, Jack's blue eyes danced like a hummingbird. He tried to catch each name, taking in their faces, their eyes, and their serious expressions – but it didn't comfort him, it only made his skin crawl.

"H-H. Haddock: ERAGON...M. DunBroch: ARTEMIS–"

Jack froze and rushed forward. "W–"

_**"******__...d_er arrest!–BAM!"

When he blinked, Toothiana had already jabbed the scroll button and was going too fast – she hadn't even realised what she'd missed, and Jack completely forgot a second later.

"E. Fitzherbert: FLYNN RIDER...R. Corona: RAPUNZEL–"

"Wait," Jack managed to reach out and touch her shoulder. Tooth abruptly paused as they stopped on the girl with the brown hair. "What the hell? ...I know her."

Tooth blinked and looked up at him with hopeful eyes.

"You_ did?"_ she asked but then she scrunched her eyebrows. "Wait, how?"

Jack hesitated for a fraction of a second, glancing at the princess before he looked back to the screen. His face was unreadable for a moment.

"Uh," he mumbled offhandedly before he refocused on the rest of the list. "We had a thing."

Tooth raised a delicate eyebrow.

"You had a...Oh."

And Tooth turned back to the screen slowly with a wide-eyed, almost embarrassed look. She didn't comment in case her throat would make weird sounds, but she frowned anyway.

As if her heart hadn't already jumped through _enough_ emotional hoops.

Aster took over to scroll up instead.

"We need to see how far this list goes, and when it started," he said gruffly but Jack could see his fingers tense and tighten with the several agents he glanced at.

"But why are they even here in the first place?" Jack said angrily and Tooth shook her head of certain negative feelings and glared at the screen too. She breathed out a chilly breath and finally swallowed her tasteless gum.

"Y-Yeah," she agreed. "And why do they all have a PENDING next to their statuses now!?"

Aster kept scrolling but it was the same for a while. And no matter what the stellar Aussie tried with the keyboard, all they could do was scroll. The program itself was locked in with a firewall that even _he_ couldn't decrypt fast enough. Eventually, his fingers were shaking so bad against the keys, Tooth frowned behind him worriedly.

(PENDING)  
(PENDING)  
(PENDING)  
(PENDING)

Until suddenly...

(ACTIVE)

The three froze again.

They watched as the yellow 'pending' statuses suddenly changed to green – and their real names were no longer shown.

SHIPPEITARO – Rescue (ACTIVE),  
ANANCY – Negotiations (ACTIVE)  
STREGA NONA – Distributor (ACTIVE)  
CINDERELLA – Supplier (ACTIVE)

Aster narrowed his eyes.

"Uh oh," he muttered. "Looks like these agents are checked off the list..."

Jack scowled. "But for what? And why're their full names no longer showing?"

Tooth wiped her mouth nervously and blinked. Her heart felt like it was going into overdrive.

"J-Just keep scrolling, Edmund."

–_**a tire screeched–**_

Jack bit the inside of his cheek as he heard the hacker and princess murmur in distress.

"W-What the heck?!"

"Crikey, these are all recent! Two months ago, three months ago–"

–_**he knocked his sparring partner with a butterfly kick–**_

"Oh my god!"

"You guys–"

_**"–******__o_n the ground!"

"Five months–"

_"Bunny–"_

"Edmund, **stop!**"

Aster's fingers froze over the key and Jack's eyes widened.

Tooth gasped.

JACK FROST – Takedown

And there was a picture of a blue-eyed Jack, glaring back at them from the small square. It looked like he'd refused to show his real hair colour since it was dyed brown again.

"Jack, is that...is that _you?"_ she whispered and the three leaned in to read his status.

(ACTIVE)

Jack's mouth fell open and for the time in while, he didn't know what to say, what to do...what to think.

"I...Wh–But th..." His heart was like a timpani, pounding blood in his ears.

The princess covered her mouth with shaky fingers.

_'H-He's really...He's really a...'_

"Jack?" she whispered when she saw his fist tighten and his eyes grow wider than she'd ever seen. "P-Please tell me–"

_"Keep going." _

The two stared at him. Tooth looked like she wanted to protest, like she wanted to understand 'Jack the GUARDIAN' in the picture apart from the 'Jack the pain-in-her-ass-friend' standing next to her. But it looked like the other two were ignoring her.

"Y'sure, mate?" Aster asked but Jack glared at him. His facial features were cold, sharp, and severe – but the Australian picked apart his gaze like a puzzle. Jack's outward calm bravado did little to hide the storm brewing in his already cold heart.

"Staring at my picture won't help us figure out what I was checked off for, will it?"

"Righ'," and the Aussie quickly scrolled up higher. Jack took the opportunity to stare at Tooth, hoping she wasn't afraid of what she'd seen. But her face–

Tooth turned ghostly white.

He blinked worriedly.

"Tooth?" he murmured. "What's–"

"Oh, god."

And when he followed her eyes back to the screen, he knew why she'd cut him off.

* * *

_"How many of there are you?"_

_"At one time...hundreds."_

* * *

But of the tens of GUARDIANs who were listed as active and fifty others who were still pending..._the rest_, the majority higher up the list...

They saw red.

Aster felt his insides shutdown.

"Th...They've been..."

CUPID – Recon (TERMINATED),  
TLALOC – Naval unit (TERMINATED)  
GRAND ELK – Dispatch (TERMINAT–

_**"******__B_ang! Bang!"

Jack rubbed his eye and Tooth looked at him with glassy eyes.

"...They're dead..._aren't they?"_

Jack's skin paled of more than physically possible – but no matter how tight he balled his fist, he couldn't get the red, bold letters of the word out of his head. He paused when the itch went away and looked down at her nervously. Jack wanted to open his mouth but...what could he say? Even if he wanted to, _how_ could he?!

Toothiana frowned as she watched his face turn and a shadow cast under his bangs and against his cheekbones. "Jack..."

Aster scrolled and scrolled higher up the list and when the brunette leaned in again, he realised why Aster's breath started to hitch.

There were literally _hundreds _already terminated – and it made them sick to their stomachs.

"KOS..." Jack mumbled when it finally dawned on him. _"...Kill On Site."_

_Beep!_

"Jack!" Aster heaved. "Look."

And the three watched as Agent DREAMCATCHER (just eighteen spots ahead of Jack)'s status changed from ACTIVE to TERMINATED on its own.

"N-No!" Tooth choked in the back of her throat and covered her mouth again now that she knew.

"All the others..." Aster mumbled. His face swirled with dark energy, like a shape shifting nature spirit. It made Tooth restless. He suddenly reminded her of those menacing pookas Mr. Sandy used to tell stories about all the time – fierce and benevolent warriors. "So that's where they vanished off too...they were...they were–"

"And there're not much left," Aster whispered bitterly as he went back to the green and yellow sections of the KOS. After he and Jack counted absentmindedly, they pulled back slowly – there were only a handful of agents (including Jack), still yet to be killed off by the computer's program, less than a hundred at the most.

"You're telling me this little piece of _shit _is...is the one responsible for the bounty on my head in six continents?" Jack seethed.

Tooth found it hard to breathe as Jack shifted slightly in her vision. A second later, she saw both his hands push into his hair. He sighed with deep stress and suddenly all she could see was his face back in the alley.

* * *

_"I knew it–"_

_"–BUT I DIDN'T KNOW THEY WERE AT THE TIME! _

_"I...I knew I had a codename but not who I was, so I just walked around...and then three operatives suddenly cornered me in California and said that I'd been involved in a huge series of crimes that I'd never committed...When they tried to take me down, I...didn't how but my instincts just kicked in and before I knew it...they were all dead."_

* * *

Suddenly, a light went off in both guy's heads.

_"Dammit!_" Aster sighed angrily, his lungs desperate for warm air. "It's–"

Jack slammed his fist against his desk.

"It's an algorithm."

"Guys, I'm in the dark here!" Tooth said. She licked her dry lips feeling frustrated and a little left out. "W-What was it doing?"

Jack looked at her.

"Someone's last command to this computer was to periodically upload every agent's name to the international wanted list," he explained. "It's been sending governments the names of past GUARDIANs to other agencies with a KILL ON SITE target."

Tooth's heart dropped into stomach – finally all the pieces were coming together.

"So that's..." she surmised. "That's why you were wanted in Vietnam."

Jack nodded as her lips kept moving.

"And Russia...and here...a-and _everywhere!"_

"But wait," and Jack spun on Aster. His eyes were dark and heated. "Cottontail, were _you _wanted?"

Tooth realised the same thing and turned to face him. Her eyebrows knitted together.

"I was," he mumbled and briefly glanced at Jack. "Long before you though."

"When I found North," he explained. "He told me about what happened after the purge, told me to look out for myself. Next thing I knew I had Australian Secret Intelligence Service on my ass for _counter_-intelligence activity. Apparently I'd 'leaked government information to several crime lords'."

And Jack looked at him with a stony face – he felt the same wave of anger.

"So I did what I do best. I hacked their database and other international wanted sites. Erased my name and files from the unknown source."

"How?"

"Created a Trojan that traveled on the receiving end of the algorithm. I still use a similar program to help the ELFs: an EA egg I called my Source Tracker Echo Razer. I couldn't trace the source, but I was able to send a virus to the invisible and wipe my codes away."

"So you're not on this list?" Jack asked in mild surprise. Aster put on his glasses. He then used his agile fingers and sharp eyes to scroll and search for his codename before he found none.

"Yeah, I'm still not here," and his sincerity made them believe him (since they couldn't read as quick as him). "Just like North. I took him off too."

Tooth realised at the moment just as her mouth fell open how smart the Australian was. To be able to hack a government site _and_ this computer to destroy a piece of its sources that couldn't be traced...she couldn't believe it.

_'But that's why he's the best,' _she lamented. _'That's why they were chosen.'_

* * *

_"We were the best of the best from all over the world...and did the operations that many agencies would think impossible. We did the impossible..."_

* * *

"But I was still sloppy," Aster grumbled and he ran a hand through his short brown hair. "I'm still wanted on ASIS's ghost list. So I can't go back...at least, not yet."

_'And that's why he lives out here... and has pots filled with tropical plants...he misses home.'_

Tooth placed a hand on his shoulder but didn't say a word. Aster immediately understood the gesture and sighed through his nose.

"Had I known..." he continued, his face darkening again. "Had I known just where this command was coming from, I would've come down here the last time! But I was afraid, I-I didn't want to step in here even after I'd remembered everything! And now look!"

He smacked his fist against the desk.

"Most of the GUARDIANs are dead and the rest still have a death sentence," and he snapped his head at Jack, "including_ you."_

Jack eyed him slowly. He didn't like the pained expression in the hacker's eyes. It seemed unfitting for the normally imperturbable, tough guy so the brunette tried to look away.

"But did you know why we shutdown?" Jack spoke and they looked at him. He lifted his head, catching the computer light in his eyes and glaring. "Did _anybody?"_

And Aster opened his mouth, before he shut it and looked down again.

"Of all the things I remember, Jack...that was never one of them. We were all in the dark until it was too late." The two then fell into silence.

Tooth looked between them, wadding her skirt in one hand and fretting so badly she thought her face would stay permanently sad. Here were two of possibly the few agents left alive. The list had already shown that a majority of the GUARDIANs were uploaded to several wanted sites with red flags and with the Nightmares on Pitch's command – they could've also been taken in under his watch!

GUARDIANs were created to help protect other agents and do the dangerous jobs regular ones couldn't, that's why they had centres, that's why they were so honored to be placed under this program, that's what she wanted to believe! She had to, for the sake of everyone she'd ever met now...so why did they have to suffer and get backstabbed by the very organization that offered them the job?

It was wrong, all wrong!

Aster suddenly sighed and drew their faces back to the screen.

"Come on, guys," he muttered and Jack watched him reach into his pocket. "All we can do now is hope for the best an–"

_**"...'etter hope for the best, you bastard!"**_

Jack blinked twice. His head twitched slightly.

"_Dammit,"_ he breathed under his breath.

_**"******__.._.t's right, I'm lookin' at you, you fu...his drug circle is–BAM!–WHERE'RE YOU HIDING HIM?!"

Jack tried to focus on the screen again but when he turned his head, his entire body swayed slightly. Jack panicked – he never got dizzy like that unless he was losing blood! What was–

–_**the troopers broke **__**down **__**the door and five moved in. Jack was last as team leader and searched the dirty boat room. He turned his head, behind the tall stacks of drugs and saw–"**_

Jack shook his head more violently the second time. He looked down at his gloved hand for something as a point to focus on. Instead, his dexterity started to blur his vision and he had to inhale deeply to stop it. He pushed his hand into his hair.

_"What's that?"_

Jack's senses stop spinning for a second and looked down at Tooth. He leaned sideways and braced himself on the table as she watched the Aussie pull out a keychain. It was a beautiful, coned shell.

"It's puka shell, sheila," he said with a slight smile before his face fell serious again. "Lot of these beauts around Sydney if you ever go. But mine's not for lookin'."

He quickly pulled a small cap from under it and showed a USB port.

Tooth and Jack's eyebrows scrunched together.

"I'm gonna make a copy of this list," he said determinedly. "North needs to see this and we can't let this sort of information go to no use. Then, I'll try to shutdown the program."

Aster quickly leaned over and Tooth shined her flashlight on the hard drive to give him light. When he stuck it into the port, they all sucked in a breath.

"They keyboard won't let me do shit but this puka can run a keygen to bypass all that crap and copy the HTML codes."

"Good thinking," Jack praised and the other two both appeared shock – that was the first time Jack said anything bordering on respect for the Australian. Aster sighed under his breath.

"Let's hope, mate," he finally grumbled. "Otherwi–"

He stopped talking immediately.

Aster's hack sequence was cut off the second it started and the screen turned black.

"Oh no!" Tooth covered her mouth in fear. Jack leaned down, eyes wild and demanding.

"What happened?!"

"Crikey!" Aster spat. "I–"

"Just pull it out, Edmund!"

And the three frantically roved their flashlights down to the ground to look for the hard drive with the USB in it.

"Do you see it?"

"I don't know which one I'm looking at any–"

A bright, blue light lit up the screen.

They all froze.

Turning back to face it slowly, the three saw that the list on the screen had disappeared and instead there was a video feed showing an empty chair – the same one Aster was sitting in, in a dark room just like theirs.

"Oh s-sweet..." Tooth whispered. She covered her eyes and peeked through her fingers.

She hoped it wouldn't be like one of those prank ghost things, she_ prayed_ it wasn't. And as her heart raced painfully under her clothes, the skin on Jack and Aster's toned arms crawled.

They narrowed their eyes defiantly and pulled up instantly, ready to take whatever was coming their way...but the flourish of goosebumps and the hairs prickling on the backs of their necks didn't escape them.

A fight? A horrible monster? Pitch? A...A killing?

They weren't sure, but whatever was coming would soon...

A second later, a red circle and a set of numbers showed up in the corner of the screen. It clocked in a date and set time starting from 0:00 before it started...It was a recording.

Then, out of nowhere, an older gentleman moved in front of the screen and sat down in the chair. An eerie bluish, white light from behind the camera cast over his features and made him glow.

They all held their breaths.

The man wasn't very tall, but by his stark, cream-colored suit, bowtie, and prudent, blue (bloodshot) eyes, they knew he was very important. He had a bald head but one wiping sweep of white and an almost-baby like face.

His expression however was far from it. He looked regal, but worn down and aging, and when he lifted a small hand to rub his tired eyes, they saw that whatever he'd been doing before (or for a majority of his time) had drained him.

The round-faced man then dropped his hand and clasped them on the table under the camera. He looked down for a moment (probably at his hands) and around the room in front of him with a frown. Then finally, he looked into the camera and sent Jack, Tooth, and Aster an uncomfortable gaze.

He spoke.

"_The Center Gene...Never before in my or anyone's lifetime have I seen such a creation."_

His voice was light with a Russian accent but Jack and Aster frowned. It was croaky...like he hadn't talked (or _never _talked) up until this point for the video. They also never saw him before but the more he talked, the more his throaty tone scratched the speakers like jagged stone, the more encroached they were, wanting to listen.

_"Developed by our best scientists, this...__**coded, genetic sequence**__ is unique to every individual it bonds with...We tried many attempts to make this DNA compound universal...But they all failed." _

He paused yet no one said a word...Then he continued, with a gentle posture. The end of his arms were moving slightly.

_"Our theory concludes that...these centers cannot be replicated. They can only be fostered in the biological write-ups of each person. Ask any regular doctor in the hospital, they cannot find it. Ask any scientist not of our work, they will not see it. This gene is so miniscule, it hides itself like a __**matryoshka doll,**__ nesting inside one DNA strand, just one...nearly __**impossible**__ to discover...and that includes in death. And while on the forefront this...__**curiosity **__does well to ease our minds of possible theft and duplication, it was also a matter of, what to do__** with**__ it...Who to give it to...and for what purpose?"_

A smile twitched at the corner of the mysterious man's lips.

_"At first, the objective was just for science...only as tests observed by us on small creatures and cells. Have you ever seen a bird fly straight through 5-inch thick concrete, or a mouse chew through a steel pipe? My colleagues call it 'remarkable' – and __**set**__, I agree. Naturally, the...the subjects were put down after each test...but what good is that, to inflict harm on something so defenceless and innocent? So we suggested, real subjects... with intention."_

_"_What real subjects?" Aster murmured. He really didn't want to be only one sitting in the chair.

Tooth's eyes were still covered by her fingers but she couldn't look away, and neither could Aster or Jack. The brunette swallowed the gum in his throat and, as his Adam's apple moved up and down, Jack felt this creeping chill fall into his stomach too.

That didn't stop the old man from talking.

_"Twenty five years ago to this day...our first recipients, the first of many...And our tests, they were...they were a success...yes, __**set**__."_

And he nodded into the camera – to reassure the viewers or himself, Jack and the two weren't sure.

_"So they worked for us, they...protected our executives as bodyguards...but only for a short while, until we realised they were destined for...for greater things. And from then on, the company has devoted many of those to protective services–"_

_**"Move the ambassador out NOW!"**_

Jack inhaled sharply. He saw a flicker of an Italian woman's face, scared but hopeful and it almost tore at his insides.

_"–vices...Protection, defense...these two, and many more, have always been my founding principles of the GUARDIAN program."_

Tooth gasped.

**"W-What?!**" Aster gawked and Jack's eyes widened, his eyebrows flying up into his bangs.

"He's–"

_"My years as lead coordinator and benefactor had seen great success from this program, from The Center Gene. We gave agents more purpose, more destiny, and the dream of a lifetime. Superheroes in their own right...protecting this world and its citizens in rescue, assistance, reconnaissance, takedown...the GUARDIANs have done it all. And so proud I was of each one I have selectively chosen and given codenames for."_

"H-He chose..." Tooth murmured and she looked at the boys again. She slowly lowered her fingers – maybe the worst of the video was over and this was all they'd get to see: the "dark (and if not somewhat creepy) creation of Project: GUARDIAN" documentary.

But then he paused and rubbed his hands over his face. When he dropped them, he looked professional all over again.

_"But as history has taught us...golden ages do not last...And I...__**we**__...were faced with complications."_

At that, Aster's ears perked up.

"Complications?" he mumbled and looked at Jack. "What complications?"

But all Jack did was shake his head slowly and they both looked back. The man in the screen looked away for a moment like he was looking at something behind the camera they couldn't see. Not that he really could – the dark surrounding his illuminated face was so thick a ghost could swoop in at any moment.

Suddenly, the small, Russian man raised one finger.

_"It takes just one...o__ne__ agent,"_ he sighed almost sadly. _"And for that...I am sorry because I..."_

The three leaned in closer with hard eyes and nervous heartbeats.

_"...I..."_

"..."

_"...I did not consider the possibility of future and...prolonged mutation."_

They froze.

_"...And when one shows signs of failure...in this profession, the rest are deemed so. You cannot take further risks."_

Jack and Aster looked at each other, going into near-cardiac arrests under their unmoving chests. He was talking about the GUARDIAN program from twenty years ago! So if there was a problem...why the _hell_ were they still agents for it today?!

But he kept talking.

_"So it was...under my hand, that the...the program be deemed a failure... __**my**__ failure...We had to be ready to go through shutdown protocols and agent redistribution...And while the rest of the company did not know, for all those still infected with a center...their deaths, we covered up. Except...our first agent mutated...THE FAIRYQUEEN..."_

The three paused.

That codename sent a shiver down all their spines – she was probably one of the most powerful GUARDIANs by the way the man's face lit up slightly in the video. Tooth clasped her hands together to stay warm. She looked up at Jack and down at Aster for confirmation.

"FAIRYQ–H-Have you ever heard of someone like this?" she whispered.

"Not since I've work here, sheila."

"Same," Jack agreed.

But the guy started talking again.

_"She was the first...She was our __**first**__ indication that the gene was damaged – her mutations...our scientists, they...they had not seen anything like her change in physiology. And in her pain, we spent months preparing for termination, seeing where we went wrong. Until we soon realised...It was not us..."_

And he looked down.

_"...It was pregnancy."_

Silence fell across the three until Aster shook his head.

"I..." he tried to start. "I've never heard of a GUARDIAN having a kid. Have you, Frost?"

But Jack shook his head again and crossed his arms. He glared at the screen, still trying to understand what was so important about all this. Meanwhile, Tooth looked on nervously. She was _really_ starting to hate this man's creepy story, and the way he was telling it.

_"And so we waited...We waited for __**both**__ to succumb...but she was always resilient...She lasted nine months and in her passing, she left us a child...but we did not think it would survive. And so we waited again, for the child to die as well and...and when she did not, she became an interesting 'anomaly' to me, to the scientists...and to everyone on the board."_

"It was a girl..." Jack mumbled and everyone's eyebrows knitted together more tightly. "But where is she_ now?"_

And Aster and Tooth wondered the same thing, their energies crackling. Did she survive? Did she have a mutation like her mother, did...did she run the program now and that's why it still continued even after all these years? They were too frazzled to even stay on it as he continued again. The man was draining what little clarity they each had left.

_"In all our tests, our research, and our analyses, this child...is the only person __**ever **__with a Center gene to survive early, by injection or by birth. Now, this __**must **__be understood...the Center gene was created __**only **__for fully matured adults...it could never adapt to the rapid growth of anyone under the age of 21...it showed higher levels of risks, of complications–"_

_'What the heck is the meaning of all this?'_ Tooth sighed in her head. _'We should be learning more about the gene not some–'_

_"–so imagine our surprise when this child...of dark skin, magenta eyes and one blonde hair...did not mutate."_

And something cracked.

Something cracked inside Jack, inside Aster, and most importantly...

Tooth didn't even feel her hands move as they flew up over her mouth and nose.

"W...H..."

But the man in the video did not stop.

_"Our hypothesis is that...is that the center's mutations affect the skin, such was the terrible case of her mother. Purpling skin along the neck and soft tendrils sprouting at her crown...we did not know __**what**__ to expect of her child...But for four cycles, the baby was stable and her skin was impermeable to all DNA countering. You must forgive my relief...this is one of the biggest accidents we have stumbled open in our time."_

Jack and Aster immediately turned to look at Tooth.

Toothiana wasn't seeing them though. With her hands over her mouth like a paper bag, she gasped in silent, short breaths to hide her fear.

_One of the biggest accidents._

Jack went to move to her but–

_"It has now been twenty years since I have reassigned the SANDMAN to watch her. __**Twenty**,__ and so far..." _he paused to exhale steadily,_ "all his progress reports have continued to prove my theory. The gene __**can**__ mature but in the right physical conditions. And I hypothesize that being born **with** the center, as opposed to being **injected** with it, does not corrode the biology of a child. Her...Her first clone has shown us that. And her second...and her third...set, all eight have so far appeared healthy and unaltered. I doubt she will ever experience irritation or infection – her lack of chicken pox history is proof of that."_

And the worst of it was that the last part was true.

"...Tooth?"

Tooth shook her head. Throat dry and eyes burning, she felt like her heart was on fire.

"I-I...No, I..." she could barely open her mouth that it came out as a choked murmur. "No...no_,_ I c._..I can't believe what I'm hearing."_

Suddenly the man's voice cut off and they all focused their attention on his face again. After he rubbed his eyes for the umpteenth time, he ran one small hand over his head, massaging the bald scalp. He sent his one wisp of white hair into a disheveled mess.

_"But my theory...this gene, and..." _he sighed. _"That poor child...she will and must never know what horrors she brought on...like the INNOCENCE Program, a board decision I was __**highly **__against...even after reviewing the death our FAIRYQUEEN and the succession of her daughter, this was the __**worst**__ mistake they could do."_

"W-What program?!" Aster mumbled in horror–

_**"**__.._.tional compromise...I CAN'T!"

Jack clutched his head and stared wide-eyed at the floor.

_**"'******__C_ENCE...You so–ME!...S'ME!"

"Y...Wh–I–" Tooth choked and shut her eyes. "S-Stop it, please!"

She didn't want to hear anymore and even Aster wildly pressed the keys, hoping they could somehow pause the video or _something_ to take a moment.

"Stop, y'bloody crack!" he shouted desperately – but nothing worked! The strange, Russian man still kept talking, drilling their heads with knowledge they didn't want to hear.

_"In all my years, I have never..."_ he breathed. _"This is a war we were fighting and you DO __**NOT**__ bring the last balls of light you have in this world to fight them for you. The INNOCENCE Program was an operation doomed from the start...and I grieve over what has happened because of it...because of her."_

Tooth's entire body began to tremble. She had a sinking feeling, so poignant and destructive it felt like quicksand was swallowing her heart up. She gasped under her breath and clamped her mouth tighter over her lips.

_"Mmm...hufmph..."_ she heaved through her nostrils. When a tear leaked out, she wiped it away before anyone could see.

And the man stopped to look around the room before his gaze fell hard on the camera again.

_"But the truth leaked out. Somehow, I do not know. Someone found out, leaked one file, and used the info to create a backlash before it took off completely."_

Aster narrowed his eyes.

"A pre-emptive strike."

_"This company is at risk of full exposure. We cannot stop this secret from spreading beyond our walls...for unlike the board, the GUARDIANs are not bound by __**our **__level of secrecy...So as I sit before you now...they have already taken precautionary matters."_

"Pre..." Tooth mumbled. She was almost afraid of the sound of her voice. "Pre-cautionary?"

And suddenly, the man in the camera's face turned hard.

_"We have called it __**defragmentation**__. All agents with a Center Gene will be brought in nonchalantly and have their memories assaulted – replaced and rearranged...but we know. Memories can never be erased. Even with our cognitive knowledge and what we have been able to accomplish with the Center gene...__**that**__ feat is impossible."_

_"All we can do is break the chains and realign them...but this entire process is messy, __**very messy.**__ In rare cases, our...our scientists have successfully defragmented an agent's mind...only a handful have already been sent back home with no indication that they ever remembered being operatives and have moved on with their lives... But the mind is tricky, the mind fabricates, and it is __**intricate**__...For most, we have not been able to...to __**properly**__ defrag them...and for most GUARDIANs...well, they are broken now."_

They couldn't believe it – _this_ is what happened to the GUARDIANs?! And still, the man was eerily calm about the explanation.

_"This prognosis and procedure depends on the severity of amnesia and mental condition. Should you merely forget, you are sent home, making it look like you suffer from permanent PTSD...But to remember even a __**fraction **__of this life, your skills, your missions, your name, __**execution**__ it...it __**avoids **__collateral damage. 'It is', as one colleague upstairs said, 'easier for a family to handle the grief of a dead, loved one than the pain and suffering of those with mental breakdowns'...T-That is the only kind of humility we can give."_

"I f-feel sick..." Tooth nearly wept behind her hands and stepped closer to Aster's chair to lean on.

_"But memories __**always**__ come back at some time or another. So we have activated the CHOSEN protocol –  
Carrying Humility On the Successful, Enigmatic, and Noble."_

And he paused to look up again.

_"This protocol is a precaution...We...We will blacklist __**every**__ agent to multiple government wanted lists as a KOS. This has ensured that even if surviving GUARDIANs do not start to remember who they were as our agents, it allows operatives from other international agencies to kill them without reason. They will then be left in the care of hospital morgues and forensics to ID them. And without our team, without the right concentration of the gene's stimulant, their centers will remain hidden...we cannot risk anything more, or anything less."_

"B-Bloody hell..." Aster whispered. His tone was so upsetting that Tooth was sure that if he had long ears, they would lie flat against his skull or fear. "So that's why...that's why we've all been thrown topside. T-They treated us like _animals..."_

"No, _they're_ the animals!" Tooth breathed angrily but she couldn't deny it – her heart felt like it broke in two. "They made you like this, a-and...but what's the INNOCENCE program?! And _h-how_ could they create a CHOS–"

Suddenly, a weird, loud _boom!_ echoed from the speaker of the computer. The man then looked one more time nervously over the camera before he clasped his hands together again. He took a moment to stare into the lens – as if he was trying to see beyond a video that would never be replayed again.

With a wild (but easy) guess though, he frowned deeply. Then he spoke in a low voice with struggling speed.

_"If someone is watching this video, then.." _and he sighed,_ "Then it means I have failed in my last attempt to rectify this purge. It means that the GUARDIAN program has been shut down for good, the company has disbanded, and all the agents and I myself have been compromised."_

Tooth gulped behind her hands and tried to blink back stinging tear ducts.

_"You are probably one of the last of us since I imagine many will be dead by the time this list is found."_

Then they saw him grip his hands together tightly at the bottom of the screen.

_"But failures as we were, as...as __**I **__am for creating you... Believe that for all we stood for, and what the gene gave each and every one of you, it was once for __**good**__...for a better world, of dreams, and hope. I had __**faith **__in the GUARDIANs and even after my time has passed, I will __**still**__ have faith that you are the ones who can make things right...You were my __**greatest**__ joy, and now the greatest burden I must carry..."_

When he took (what they guessed) was his final breath, he reached up towards the camera and tilted the lens down slightly. And on the table near his shaky hands, was a red, deflated balloon he'd been rubbing to calm his nerves and a gold plaque with just one thing written on it...

_TSAR LUNAR_

_"I am the __Man in the Moon and to you my GUARDIANs,"_ he mumbled up to the camera, his breath shaky._ "I say this: I-I am so **very** sorry...and __**good luck**__."_

Then the video ended and the list came back.

But so did three set of numbers blocked out in red over top of it.

_**13:00:00**_

Tooth shrieked and jumped away as far as she could from the screen. And when she twisted her head, she realised all the other computers (even the broken ones) had the same timers too.

"It...I-It's a–"

Suddenly, the lights high around the facility glowed red.

"BLOODY **CHRIST**, IT'S A TICKER!"

"A wh–"

"A **bomb**, sheila!"

"N..._NO!"_ And Tooth panicked. "THEN WE GOTTA GO! W-WE NEED T–"

He jumped up immediately.

"OY!"

And when she turned around, wondering what was wrong, her blood ran cold.

"Oh no, wh...Oh no, _please!_"

But they were already too late.

Jack was gone.

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "The Chairman's Waltz" – John Williams **Man in the Moon's song, if he was a real and creepy person lol. And**** it's fun to read MiM's part in a Russian accent.**


	28. Jack's Innocence & Tooth's Instinct

***Whew!* Sry this was late! This is the most complicated chapter of the fic so now be careful. It'll be difficult to read but it was fun and if you know me by now, then you know I never make things easy haha. This is also the last countdown-themed chapter for the fic. ):**

**And okay, ready guys? We...**_**recently**_** hit halfway and the countdown to Jack and Tooth's end has started. So calculate it, and if you can't handle this shit anymore haha I totally understand, so thank you soo much for reading my fic up to this point and for even giving this a shot! *waves goodbye with a sad smile* And to those of you who've just finished crying and are pushing up your sleeves, let's do this! I hope to finish by the end of August. Can I do it? For all your sakes and mine, haha let's hope! Time to kick it up! Lol and thanx again everyone! Your response and support for this crazy story always make me smile. Kisses! (:**

**And to my language peeps, thank you so much for helping/offering to help me out with this chapter! It was so incredible! I honestly got goosebumps when I brought them all together and realised...well, you'll see! Haha and this was sort of my personal thank you to guys for reading this fic because I wanted you to get involved in a part of it. (: So here! Thanks to my lovelies who helped me out with: Spanish (Mind-Creator, Lovina, SomberLuminosity, Trumpet-Geek, and Jade Strider), Spanish-Argentinian (Sophsiri from tumblr), Spanish-Mexican (Rosary-Stefanys-Strigidae'31), Dutch (Springflake), Italian (Nuvola9 and Lauraenretard), German (Lovina, Shadigan Shinen, and NewLightRini), Malay (ToothianaFrost), Portuguese (cuzarobincantlivewithoutflying), Greek and Bulgarian (crywolf-girl23; I hope the Greek letters came out!), Japanese (The Dangerous One and my friend Natsumi), Mandarin (iris9093), Tagalog and Cebuano (my Uncle Benny), French (all-'round-freek, Lauraenretard again, and Love and Secrets; yay now I know how to properly address someone on the phone in French! Haha thanx!), Danish (Shadigan Shinen again!), Thai (kshep.n7), Hindi (Crisbel and Raul) and Urdu (Ali)! You guys are the best!**

**Okay so should anything not sound correct, I'm always here to PM. Haha you guys gave me so many different ways to say everything and even though I had to double check with most of you, like everything else, there is always space for error – but you already knew that lmao. Hopefully this HTML will copy the right text. Be sure to look out for their other phrases throughout the rest of the fic!**

**And here's a little legend in case this gets confusing:**

Present time

_Memories from previous times_

"Dialogue"

_'Thoughts'_

_**Jack's lost memories**_

**Enjoy! The longest A/N on the planet is now over lol.**

* * *

"**I'm breaking. I can't do this on my own. Can't you hear me screaming out? Am I all alone?"**

* * *

**21**

_Biggest accident–_

"Hah...H–"

*panting*

**20**

_...CHOSEN protocol..._

*huffing*

**18**

_...the death our FAIRYQUEEN and the succession of her d–_

Boots. Her boots.

Running, stomping, _pounding_...like her heart.

A tiny, heart threatening to rip in two.

**17 **

_"J-Jack?...Jack?!"_

**16**

_"JACK!...JACK, COME ON! THIS ISN'T F–"_

"_Thia, go find him!"_

**15**

She couldn't breathe.

She wanted to cry, to rage, to fall on her knees, and throw up again.

**13**

_"Are you __**high**__?! I-I don't know this place! __**You**__ should go! And you're faster than I am, I–"_

_"Look, princess!"_

His voice was trying to be calmer for her sake.

**10**

She gripped her flashlight like it was the only crutch she had left in the world. Her knuckles seared.

But her boots kept running. They didn't stop.

_"He's still somewhere in 'ere, I promise, sheila! The elevator's the only way into the Core and out, so just run around and try t'spot him!"_

**6**

She really wanted him with her.

_"Y-You're gonna keep trying to get that list? A-Aren't you?"_

_"I **need**__ to."_

**4**

_"This list is all Jack and I have left so I need to copy it somehow. B-But I'll find a way, I __**know**__ I can! So you go get 'im an' I'll get you two out before this bomb blows up the facility!"_

The darkness seemed endless, even with his LX rod – but his hopeful voice was the only thing that kept her running further away from the computer hall.

**3**

She'd placed her hand on his shoulder and gave him a light squeeze.

_"G-Good luck, Edmund! Please–"_

**2**

_"Now go!"_

**1  
**

_"GO!__"_

**12 minutes : 00 seconds**

**59**

**58**

**57**

"J...J-JACK!"

A cough. A terrified sob.

_"PLEASE!_ W-We need to GET OUT!"

One GUARDIAN core. Seven arches. Two of them sealed and one lead back to Aster – four left.

She ran to the centre of the Core and spun around.

_"JACK!"_

**55**

The faster she spun, looking around, the more the silence weighed and the cold grew.

_**"**__A_NSWER ME_!"_

He didn't.

**52**

_'Which archway? Which archway?!'_

Four arches – but only three were lit brightly with the bomb beacons in place.

**50**

Pink eyes blurred, misty and painful.

**49**

When did he leave them? _Why _would Jack leave them?!

**47**

Was it the video?

Was it the truth about...about _her?_

_'I-Is it even __**me**__? B-Because I...god, I-I...It...It couldn–'_

**44**

Was it because...because of that brunette in the list? The one he'd had a–

Tooth tightened her grip on the LX.

**43**

**42**

_'No! This isn't about her or anything but __**us **__right now!'_

**40**

_'I just need to find you...And that's all I want right now!'_

Eyelids closed.

**38**

She tried again.

"Jack!"

His name left in an echo, over frosty breath and quivering lips.

He didn't answer, didn't appear.

**35**

"JACK!"

**33**

Her heart could barely keep up, breaking inside. Nerves threatened to shut down.

"Don't you _dare!"_

**31**

She was a princess. And tiny, maybe girly, and okay, too emotional.

**30**

But she was **not** weak, like what everyone seemed to think.

Like what the company seemed to think when they experimented on her.

So she spun again, throwing her hand out to the entire Core.

**29**

* * *

_...'till I break. 'Till I'm __**broken**__._

* * *

"This is all your fault!"

**28**

She snapped her head right.

**27**

The fourth arch, the one with the broken lights.

She froze.

**26**

A hoodie. The shine of leather.

One flicker of light later, it was gone.

"Jack, wait! COME BACK!"

**25**

Her mind might be playing tricks. Her heart might be thirsty.

But Toothiana's boots didn't stop.

**23**

Marble meet concrete.

Skin crawled. Sweat started coming.

**21**

The new archway was _ten times_ creepier up close. The emergency lights overhead wouldn't stop flickering.

She heaved a breath. Her lungs shivered.

**19**

No clue. She had absolutely _no clue_ what they might've used this corridor for.

There were ten halls. _Ten._ On each side, fifty feet high up to the red ceiling.

Her neck muscles ached, her eyes tired.

**16**

"Where'd you go?!"

She shined light in the first row – Corridor 1 and 2. Empty.

**15**

The second row. Empty.

The third row–

"J-JACK! COME OUT!"

She skidded to a halt.

**12**

Each hallway was too dark to see. _Pitch black_, and complete and total–

Her teeth grit.

**10**

"No! _No,_ come on! _Come on!"_

She bit her lip defiantly and spun 360°

A reverse 180°

**9**

What could she do?

**8**

Which one to choose?

**7**

Was...Was she even sure that it was really Jack she s–

* * *

_...But Toothie, I-I'm scared!...__It's okay, BT! Remember what Uncle Tanvir always says?...__T...T-Take a leap of faith?...__You got it! Now, JUMP!__  
_

* * *

**3**

Her sigh...it was nervous.

**2**

Almost like his.

**1**

**11 minutes : 00 seconds**

His lungs were on fire. His mind was splitting in two.

Into three.

He just...He just needed to get away, he h–

**59**

Tooth's head snapped up.

Corridor 6. On the right.

**56**

Her bones. It was in her bones.

_'Turn right!'_

**55**

_'Turn right!'_

**54**

Her eyes – her 'accidental, anomalistic' pink eyes – narrowed. She dove in.

Panting, gasping, heaving in the dark.

Her boots were the drum and her light was the beacon. They called out the shadows, the wraiths, and desperation in her heart.

But they lit the way and pumped her adrenaline.

Something bit her.

**50**

Again and again.

"Ugh, stop it!_ Stop_ it! _Argh!"_

She slapped her hands. The bite became an itch. The itch became a prickle. The prickle became a twitch.

**49**

"Stop!I don't _have_ it!_ I __**don't!**__"_

But they wouldn't stop.

They were reacting to something. Something deeper inside the Core, the way she imagined Jack to feel the wind. Or Aster, feeling a surface crack under his fingertips.

**44**

Her rifles were heavy at her thighs.

**43**

Her stamina was running out.

**42**

The hall seemed to go on forever.

**41**

"I...I-I...J_-_Jack, WHERE ARE YOU?!_"_

**40**

And the floor vanished from under her.

She screamed.

**39**

His eyes, so blue and genetically altered, grew wide.

_**"**__..._OCENCE...you done?!...'ent is now!"

A gasp – cold fire passed through his chest again.

"Stop it! _Stop!"_

**38**

But he was invisible...to everyone, to _everything._

They'd flicker and appear around him, but after one would pass through him, they'd all vanish.

"Why can't any of you..._Why?!"_

How was he–Wh-_Where_ was he? The room was dark, large, and alone.

He shut his eyes.

**36**

She tumbled and tumbled.

Terrible _bangs_ and _thuds_ down all the way down a short flight of concrete steps.

Her throat was sandpaper, heartbeat erratic.

When it was over, she was sprawled on the cold floor, heaving angrily.

"O-Oh _crap!_"

**31**

Did she break something? Everything ached.

A cough, a gasp for cold air. Eyes darted around.

The floor was like ice, the shadows licked her everywhere.

She trembled.

**28**

Pink eyes grew wet. She needed to find him.

He had a life to recover, she a family to find, Edmund had a list to copy and program to shutdown – she was _not_ allowed to get herself injured in between all that when they needed her most!

Not even...Not even that video could distract her.

**25**

The red lights...The numbers.

* * *

_BLOODY CHRIST, IT'S A TICKER!_

* * *

**22**

_'Get up, Tooth! __**G-Get up!**__'_

"O-Oh my god..."

**20**

She remembered yoga.

**19**

She remembered spinal cords.

**18**

She remembered her friend from middle school. The one who wore a brace for her scoliosis.

She glared up at the darkness then shut her eyes.

**14**

Nice and slow...Line up your bones...pull yourself up gently.

**10**

When she was up, she turned.

**8**

The flashlight was several feet away, its radius short but blinding.

It lit up something. Something she'd never thought she'd see–

**7**

–_frost._

**6**

Light moisture in the room turned the concrete to rime.

**5**

Or did it?

**4**

She wiped her mouth. The flashlight was in her hands instantly.

The ice still sugared the floor.

But–

**2**

Not the whole floor. Just a patch. A tiny, wispy patch.

**1**

A patch made in a brushstroke with a piece of cold air – in one, controlled direction.

And there was only one thing, one _hand_, which could do that.

Tooth's heart nearly stopped.

**10 minutes : 00 seconds**

**59**

**58**

**57**

"Edmuund!"

Her screech was indefinable. Loud and feral. Her feet danced in circles.

**55**

"I-I think I'm gonna find him! I think he–"

**54**

A hidden wire caught her boot.

**53**

She screamed out nervously. She shot out her hands.

She caught something.

A steel pole.

**51**

The princess stopped her fall. Her gasp was grateful, her heart was still unforgiving.

Everything didn't seem so scary when she'd walked around before. Maybe it was time...Maybe it was the loneliness.

Or maybe...

**50**

* * *

_Jack shined his light on Tooth one more time, and after she waved half-heartedly, he turned right and kept on going alone._

* * *

She moved her hand higher up the bar as she pulled herself up.

**48**

_Huuurrrrm-Druh!_

Suddenly, her hand couldn't move.

**47**

She stopped moving.

Pink eyes looked up fearfully.

**46**

The pole lit up bright, turquoise.

Her grip wouldn't let go around the light. Like crazy glue, like a magnet.

Yank after yank, her arm would rip out!

**42**

She yelled out in distraught.

**41**

–_Center gene identified–_

**40**

"Wh-Wait! No! NO, I **DON–"**

And the floor vanished underneath her again.

"AAHH!"

**39 **

Her heart raced. Her stomach lurched. But the pole magnetised to her palm.

**37**

"H-Holy M-E-Edmund, _heeelp!"_

**36**

She dangled over the circle. Boots and a flashlight precarious over the pit. The pole seemed to go down forever into the dark.

**35**

Her other hand clutched desperately, no upper body strength to be had.

**34**

Then the light in the rod moved downwards. Down deep into the circle, into the darkness, all alone.

**33**

It dragged her with it.

**32**

Toothiana screamed.

**31**

Jack screamed too.

**30**

He saw a buddy. From a broken memory.

He heard a laugh. He smelled something delicious. He tasted syrup on his tongue.

**27**

And for all his confusion, he kept seeing projections.

Agents...men he'd never spoke to...women he'd never met.

**26**

Someone gripped his arm.

**25**

He spun.

**24**

The touch felt real. The face _was _real.

**22**

He gritted his teeth. He saw a smile–

**21**

_**"**__J_ack, come on! Let's play!"

He saw Moscow.

**19**

_**"******__L_et's play boys."

**17**

She held on for dear life. Her heart was in her throat and nausea started to build.

She screamed and screamed.

**15**

The wind stole names and pleas from her lips.

**14**

Her feelings were wildfire. Goosebumps flared across her skin. From toes to scalp, she suddenly felt...unwelcomed.

**13**

Eyelids became bear traps. Tight and unmerciful.

Curls and wavy locks flew up like banshees.

**10**

Tooth wanted to cry.

The ride drove her down further and further.

**7**

And when the air became too thick, the cold almost unbearable–"Oh _n–"_

She fell through an open ceiling.

**5**

_Thud!_

The concrete floor sent searing pain shoot up her tail bone.

**4**

"A-Ahh!"

**3**

Pain blinding and senses numb, her flashlight pointed up.

Blurry, dizzying, she shook her head.

**2**

The pole stopped glowing. Steel covered the ceiling, sealing her in.

**1**

And she was alone.

**9 minutes : 00 seconds**

"N-No..."

**59**

"No!...N-_NO!"_

**58**

Her fists slammed the walls. Her voice were feral and desperate.

"NOO! EDMUND! _EDMUUUNNDD!"_

**57**

Another smack.

"HEEELP! SOMEBODY!"

**56**

Another slam.

_"ANYBODY!"_

**55**

She even kicked the pole so hard her toe began to sting.

"I-I'M DOWN HERREEEE!"

**54**

"I-I...I..."

**53**

Her light fixed on the sealed door. She didn't want to see what was behind her just yet.

She gritted her teeth.

**51**

Her gun appeared.

Five rounds. Aim at the door.

**50**

_**Bang!**_

**49**

_**Bang!**_

"OPEN UP!"

**48**

_**Bang!**_

"Dammit!"

**47**

_**Bang!**_

**46**

"D-DAMMIT!"

**45**

_**Bang!**_

"_ARGH!"_

**44**

C_lich! _Empty.

She angrily pushed her knuckles to her forehead.

**42**

Her voice was tiny, scared but trying.

"O-One..."

**41**

"Two..."

**40**

"Thr...Three..."

She turned.

**38**

Lifting her light to the area, she nearly cried.

"_Jack..."_

**37**

_"...where are you?!"_

**36**

He nearly choked. He gripped his shirt more times than he could count.

**34**

But they wouldn't stop passing through him. Wouldn't stop the memories. Wouldn't stop the illusions.

**31**

Another man touched his shoulder.

He tried to shove him away, but he only caught air.

**29**

A little girl's laugh echoed far away.

**28**

When he turned, North's ELF agent was lying dead on the ground in her place.

**27**

He couldn't take it.

**26**

He clutched his head and spun–

**25**

Pitch was standing there.

**_"Time is running out."_**

**23**

He blinked.

**22**

**21**

Pitch was ten feet away.

Jack sprinted after him.

**20**

**_"Cold and dark, Jack. __Cold __and __dark__..."_**

He blinked again.

**19**

Pitch was behind him.

**18**

Holding another him by the throat. The other Jack, in the white dress shirt and tuxedo pants.

**17**

**_"...'y this. This shitty little toy–"_**

His vision then flickered.

**16**

The two were gone – Jack was still alone.

He bent his head into one hand.

**14**

He reached for his belt with the other. He _had _to.

**13**

He was chasing shadows he didn't even know.

**12**

Her eyes were glassy. She rubbed them and ruined her makeup slightly.

Lab rooms on the right, elevators on the right, a grandmaster hall down the middle?

**10**

She could only guess.

She was outside of the Core, back in a regular sector of the company.

**8**

"NO! I need to get back in there! _I NEED TO GET BACK!"_

**7**

But _how?!_

Her hands shook.

**6**

The flashlight dropped.

**5**

"Sh-_Shit!"_

Trembling fingers darted through the dark and touched the cold.

**4**

She panicked.

_"Where are y-you?_"

**3**

Teeth chattered.

**2**

"Wh-Where_ are_ you?!"

**1**

She caught it on the floor. Her beam pointed up. There were so many corridors – cold and endless.

**8 minutes: 00 seconds**

A flicker.

**58**

A shape.

**57**

...A _letter!_

**56**

_**ρασπι–**_

She gasped.

_'What was that?!'_

The light shone again.

**53**

**52**

_**们**__**会**_

_'No wait, where'd the other go?!'_

**50**

And the light shone again.

'_**ilarlos–**_

**49**

Her wrists shook, her eyes grew wide. Above each corridor was a sign, a word

No, _words._

_'German...Malay?...W-Wait, was that Jap–'_

**46**

She was panic-stricken. The words...the words they...were jumbled.

**45**

They were jumbled. They were confusing. Endless and endless.

And they were _everywhere._ Language upon language.

**43**

_**Beskyt...dunia... прет...**__**ちの**__**–**_

She shook her head self-consciously and squinted her eyes.

**41**

Corridor 1: _**我**__**们会保护这个世界**__**...**_

**40**

Her head whipped left.

Corridor 5: _**Nuestro objetivo es vigilarlos...**_

**38**

To the right.

Corridor 4: _**Ще ги претпазиме...**_

_'But which is...Which will lead me to him?!'_

**35**

_**-**__**ze...Proteksyon...**__**我**__**-**_

She stopped._ 'P-Protection?'_

**34**

She bit her lip – Corridor 6.

She took a wild guess.

**32**

"Please, be right!"

**31**

She dashed down the fourth above the Filipino script. Into an empty office.

**29**

A pole was situated in the back, disguised as a support beam or for fibre optics.

_'Another pole to grab?'_

**26**

She narrowed her eyes and ran to it. "Only one way to find out!"

It was cold in her grip, but lit up at her touch.

**24**

–_Center gene identified–_

The words sent it a spike through her heart.

**22**

The floor opened. Her skin was glue to the pole.

**21**

The pole moved sideways into a secret hall. When she came out on the other side...

**18**

She was back in the same hall.

**17**

She gasped.

She tried again.

**16**

_'L-Let's try...'_

**15**

_**Beskyt dem.**_

Corridor 2 on the _left_, this time.

**14**

The pole _had_ to lead somewhere different!

**10**

**9**

It didn't.

It tossed her back into the main hall.

**6**

She kicked the pole and covered her eyes.

**5**

The words ran through her mind like dark stallions. What needed to be done?! _What_ was she missing?!

**3**

"Argh! D...D-Dammit!"

She shined her light on the ground.

**2**

If Jack wasn't downstairs, he had to be here...he _had to_!

**1**

But there was no frost was on the floor!

**7 minutes: 00 seconds**

**58**

**57**

Her light moved and moved.

**56**

Something shimmered on the wall.

**55**

She turned.

**54**

An icy gasp left lips.

"J..."

There was a flourish of frost...

**52**

...in the shape of hand.

Tooth cried out.

**50**

She ran to it, gingerly touching it with gentle fingers.

Her palm pressed flat against it, firm and faithful.

**48**

Her fingers could barely reach his. She felt so small...this was the same hand that cocooned hers so many times – its cold crept into her skin. She shivered and shined the light around.

**44**

She saw nothing, no one. It was all cold, dead...and alone.

**43**

Eyelids shut and legs gave out.

Her hand smeared his handprint and her knees hit the ground.

**42**

Her forehead hit the wall, teeth grinding, vision red.

**41**

She took a breath deep, throat raw and angry. She screamed in frustration.

At everything, everyone...at herself.

**39**

**38**

_"AAHHHHHH!...H-HRGH–"_

She needed to breathe, to calm down, she wasn't giving up. She _couldn't._

Not for herself. Not for her sisters. Not for Aster, or North...Not for Jack.

* * *

_...you can look at the stars and think of me...Okay, Toothie..._

* * *

**35**

But god, forbid she wasn't a spy! She couldn't calculate like an assassin or decode like a hacker.

And she realised, she might've been useless after all.

**34**

* * *

_Not you, **we**...__What are y–__**We **need to f-figure out where he's headed...This isn't just your m-mission anymore. It's mine too, r-remember?_

* * *

**33**

She rubbed her eye.

She looked up.

**31**

She rose – shaky legs, unsteady posture – and gritted her teeth.

**30**

_'Try again! Tr-Try again, Tooth!'_

Her light shined on the signs again.

**29**

Eyes fluttered. Irises dilating and growing with each turn. Her Incredibly Advanced Language Comprehension was kicking in.

**28**

_**Ще ги претпазиме...**_

**26**

She read it slow and careful. Exhaling with each translation and inhaling with every thought.

**25**

"K-Keep _who _safe?" she mumbled.

_**Ще ги претпазиме...Εμείς Θα τους υπερασπιστούμε...**_

**23**

"Safe for _who_?"

**22**

"Defend _what?"_

And then...

**20**

Her head tilted. Her breath hitched.

**19**

She moved her flashlight above each corridor, one by one, mumbling under her breath.

**18**

She read left to right.

**17**

**16**

Jack's memories were nails driving themselves into his head.

**15**

The images, the senses, the words...the voices.

_**"D******__o_mo gret skrakya?"

He looked up.

**14**

That voice wasn't violent. Wasn't cold. Wasn't over.

It was–

**12**

His arctic blues grew wide.

Two blue outlines of shoes were at his feet.

**11**

Jack pulled his head up.

**10**

So did she.

**9**

The sign...the signs, altogether they...

"Unser Ziel ist zu schützen...私たちの目標は反故するです。Nuestro objetivo es vigilarlos, Ще ги претпазиме...Εμείς Θα τους υπερασπιστούμε, Beskyt dem, Bewaak ze...Proteksyon, 我们会保护这个世界, lindungi dunia."

**7**

_**"******__Jee_n skrakya..."

He squinted his eyes.

She squinted again.

"**Unser Ziel ist..."**

**6**

And again...

"**Unser** goal **ist**..."

Jewel-pink eyes narrowed. The sign melted away.

"**Unser** goal **ist zu schützen...****私たちの目標は反故するです。****Nuestro objetivo** watch over, **Ще ги претпазиме...Εμείς **will **υπερασπιστούμε,** Protect **dem, Bewaak **them...**Protek**tion, **我****们****会保****护 **this **世界**,** lindungi** world."

"Our goal is to **schützen**...Our**目標は反故する**is. **Nuestro **goal is to watch over, **Ще ги** defend them...**Εμείς** will defend, Protect them, **Bewaak **them...Protection, **我****们****会 **protect this **世界**, **lindungi **world."

"Our goal is to schützen...Our 目標は反故する is. Nuestro goal is to watch over, Ще ги defend them...Εμείς will defend, Protect them, **Bewaak** them...Protection, 我们会 protect this 世界, lindungi world."

_"Our goal is to guard...our goal is to protect. Our goal is to watch over, we will keep them safe...We will defend them, protect them, **guard** them...Protection, we will protect this world, protect this world."_

_"**Guard**."_

**3**

**2**

She gasped.

**1**

**6 minutes: 00 seconds**

It was one supposed to read all at once...It was a sentence, a tenet!

"That word's bolded out! But–"

**59**

Biting her lip she looked around at the others. They weren't the same.

That was it!

But...why?

**58**

_**"–me to the Gunner division, boys!"**_

Jack turned his head. Another voice appeared.

_**"**__..._'on't disappear!"

He blinked. Another agent flicker into view. Then another.

_**"–**__t_a wa kesshite–Aran meeny-ya–"

And another.

_**"**__...'_ostra missi–"

**56**

He narrowed his eyes worriedly. Their words were supposed to make sense but–

**55**

She took the chance.

**54**

She nervously walked into Corridor 3 with 'Bewaak Ze' written over it.

Another pole was there in an tiny alcove. She clutched it.

"Please be right..._Please!_"

It lit up. It took her, and when she landed...she wasn't in the same hallway.

She stumbled off.

**51**

"What is this..."

**50**

"...like Level _two?"_

She didn't know what to think...Except one thought: Keep going.

**49**

**48**

Jack stood up. He turned and spun in his stand.

Bangs whipping, eyes roving, he frowned with upset.

**46**

He shut his eyes.

Too much. They w–

_**"**__...st_op running! They're getting aw–TAYONGLAHAT! (We are united!)...W-What the hell?! Where'd they all come fro–"

He grabbed his head.

**44**

She shined her light.

**43**

Toothiana gaped.

These signs were different.

"Foren, blijf samen. Estamos nisto juntos, noi siamouniti. Kita sepasukan, hum sab ek saath hai, Είμαστε ενωμένοι...Един екип сме, wir sind **vereint**. 我们是团结的。Magkaisa, Umoja, _l'union fait la force."_

**41**

**40**

She wiped her mouth, eyes alight.

"Un...U-Unite, st-stand together. We are in this together...we are united." Tooth stood a little taller, getting goosebumps.

**39**

**38**

"W-We are one team," she continued. "We are all one toge-together..._we are united. _We are one team...We are united, we are united...Unity, unity,_ unity makes the strength_."

_...We are united_

**36**

**_"We are united!"_**

**35**

The criminals kept chanting them, throwing his team off-guard, he'd remembered that. They swarmed in tens, against a _Gunner _team of five–

**'Vereint**'...'**United.'**

The hallway engraved 'wir sind vereint'...Corridor 4 had to be–

She sprinted under the German text. A pole ride later...

Level 3

"Yes!" Tooth cried.

**27**

**26**

The pole was right! The hall _was_ different!

She couldn't believe it. It somehow made sense!

_'They all...they all come together...they're messages to the agents! And I just need to read it all to find the right. Because I can...'_

She swallowed a choke.

**24**

"Because I can read every language. A-And the doctors never understood why...**"**

**23**

_Ask any regular doctor in the hospital, they cannot find it. Ask any scientist not of our work, they will not see it._

_'I have to keep going...I-I have to keep going!'_

She gritted her teeth. "Everyone can _suck it."_

**19**

**18**

A new level, a new hallway. New signs were labelled above the corridors.

"Solider," she read flit her eyes back and forth steadily. "You choose this life, it does not choose you. We...We are men of our own conviction. We are not warriors, we are not soldiers, we are not assassins..._You choose this path, it does not choose you._ You are not an assassin...not an assassin...not a soldier...not a soldier. _We _are not soldiers."

**12**

**11**

"군인, Tu escolhes esta vida, não é ela que te escolhe a ti, Ние сме хора на нашите възгледи, เราไม่ใช่นักรบ, Hum sipahi nahim hai, Noi non siamo **assassini**, 走这条路是你所选择的，路从不选你。Du er ikke en snigmorder, Du bist nicht ein Mörder, Jij bent geen soldaat, Engkau bukannya tentera, Εμείς δεν είμαστε στρατιώτες."

_"Assassini_...**Assassin**! Corridor 3!"

She dashed under the Italian script grabbed onto the pole.

And when she went up, she was successful again. The cold was persistent, creeping under her coat.

Level 4!

**8**

His heartbeat was thunderous.

_Lub-dub. Lub-dub._

**7**

But doubt started to creep in.

Was this even right? Even if she followed the halls to the right words, would...would Jack even _be _here?

_'What if he went off course? What if he...And how would I–'_

Her light shined again.

She gasped.

**2**

Another frosted handprint.

And that was enough for her.

**1**

**5 minutes: 00 seconds**

_'Go Tooth, __GO__!'_

She sprinted and sprinted. Her skill had never been used so much in one moment and as she ran, her brain read the signs frivolously.

**57**

"Strength...Strength in is in you," she whispered, her boots echoing on the concrete. "Keep fighting, keep fighting. You must stay strong, don't give up. _Survive._ When things get hard, you must push, you must fight, you must rise...You get up, _rise up_, and together...w-we fight."

"Force est en vous, Продалжи да се бориш, ฮึดสู้ต่อ. Je moet sterk blijven, giv ikke op, _Lagpasan._ Quando as coisas se complicam, nós esforçamo-nos mais, Πρέπει να παλέψεις, devi sorgere. Du must dich erheben, **bangkit**, tumayo ka! Y Luchamos juntos."

_Bangkit_..._**Rise up.**_

She turned down Corridor 5 with the Malay script over it.

A grab, a zip, and stumble later–

**49**

**48**

Level 5

"That's right...keep going,_ keep fighting,"_ her breath icy like the corridors. She thought of her sisters, she thought of the ELFs – she felt Jack's arms around hers back in the Wales hotel penthouse. It all surged her and turned her vigour fiery.

Her breath was ragged but her voice was coming back. Earlier anxiety of the computer was being pushed down as she thought about the Jack, thought about Aster, thought about the bomb ready to blow.

**42**

"我々は名誉を示す必要があります。Πρέπει να μείνεις πιστός, restez loyaux..."

"We must demonstrate honor!" Tooth read. She clenched her fist and danced on her feet, shining her light so firmly. "You must be loyal, _remain _loyal..."

**39**

Jack was still several floors up. Eyes wide and head dizzy.

**38**

"Defend yourself, defend your team, d-defend the people," she recited taking more confident steps forward, ever prevalent for any signs of Jack's strange frost prints again.

"...Pertahankan diri, pertahankan pasukan kamu, epagtangol mo ang tao, Остани верен..."

"Stay true..."

**37**

He was alone on the outside–

**36**

"...Habe Ehrgefühl..."

"Have honor..."

**35**

–but smothered on the inside.

**34**

...我们一定要**守****护**对方。Dobbiamo difendere questo mondo, defende este mundo com honra...

"We must defend each other, we must defend this world, defend this world with honor."

Her boots stopped short of Corridor 7 labelled in Mandarin.

"...Respecteer deze eed."

"R-Respect this oath."

_守护_..._shou hu_..._**Defend.**_

She continued to trust herself. She kept getting it right.

Level 6

Her breath caught.

"Ти си защитник. Engkau adalah wira, Είστε όλοι ήρωες, _tayo_ ay bayani. Je bent een beschermer, du er en helt. Nós somos os Guardiões. Somos **protectores**, 我々は英雄です, เราคือผู้พิทักษ์."

Her eyes were quick, her lips near blue but undying.

**28**

**27**

"You..." and she thought every agent, every loved one, and every GUARDIAN who'd walked into her life and looked out for her. "You are a protector..." she mumbled to herself.

**26**

Jack's heart raced. The illusions returned. He stumbled backwards, unsure of what to do.

"I..." he stuttered. "_Why are y–"_

**25**

"You are a...Y-You are a hero. You are all heroes, _we _are heroes..." her flashlight moved higher. "You are a protector...a hero. We are protectors..."

**24**

Jack looked around the circular doom, made of concrete, iron and Guardian inscriptions. He shook his head. _'How did I get her–'_

**23**

"We are protectors, we are heroes...we are the guardians."

The last one made her heart twinge. It was so reminiscent of Punjam, and all the Thai was swirled around the palace.

"ปกป้องเหล่าประชา!" the guards used to recite. _"Protect the people!"_

She gripped tightened her scarf and rushed forward – but froze just above Corridor 3 labelled with Spanish.

_Protectores _was scratched out when her LX light shined on it. She caught another word bolded beside it.

_**Protectores **_**Iodovo**_**.**_

Another language, another word – but it meant _Protector _too!

But why replace protector with a new translation like _iodovo?_

**20**

**19**

She frowned. It was probably the same one, written for Project GUARDIAN.

Her heart stopped.

_"W-Wait..."_ She lifted her head.

Guard...Unity...Assassins...Rise...Defend..._Iodovo_...

_G...U...A...R...D...I–_

She nearly dropped her flashlight. She dashed into the hall.

**15**

His head seared. His knuckles were white with pain. He was grinding his teeth.

But still, they wouldn't leave. The voices wouldn't stop–

**13**

Tooth gasped.

Level 7

The pole stopped abruptly as usual. She landed gracefully on her feet. Tooth dashed forward.

Her chest was on fire. Her fingers were shaking. But she was more determined than ever.

"นี่คือภารกิจของเรา, Това е целта ни, este é o nosso** projeto**, Ye hamara fraz hai, Ito ang ating tongkulim, Das ist unsere Mission, Questa è la nostra missione, これは私たちの使命です。"

"This is our mission, t-this is our goal," she nearly gasped. "This is our project, this is our duty...o-our duty, our mission...Our mission."

_Projeto_ was replaced with **anyano.** Another word from the Guardian language.

**6**

She rushed into Corridor 9, the written above in Portuguese.

**4**

She sprinted into the corridor, less afraid and more desperate, thinking of dark clothes, blue eyes and scowl.

"Argh, you are _not_ gonna pull a gunner me!" she gritted past her teeth. "Not after what you put me through!"

The pole threw her up to a new floor.

It sent her up–

Level 8

**1**

**4 minutes: 00 seconds**

The last of eight. Eight like her sisters.

Why it had to this, for what purpose, she didn't care. As long as it would bring her back to the Core, back to Jack – another handprint promised her that.

**57**

**56–**

_BOOM!_

She yelped and was thrown off her feet by a shockwave.

It came from the somewhere way above her.

And she knew.

"JACK! HANG ON! I'M–"

She stopped when she read the halls, one last time – her ability singing in her bones.

"E non devi mai cedere, jangan berhenti. Vores styrke ligger forskelligt men selv om de ikke er ens kan vi begge hjælpe, あなたは決して諦めない必要があります。We will endure. Stap nooit uit het gevecht, _nunca_ abandonen la lucha, 我们会坚持战斗下去。At hindi tayo titigil, Δεν θα **σταματήσουμε ποτέ**."

"And you must never quit," she breathed past a smokescreen of her own breath. How many floors away was she from...from _everyone?_

She thought of Edmund a mile down working on that computer as she continued to recite the scripts.

**51**

"Never stop..."

She thought of how helpless she could feel at any moment but still refused to for the sake of surviving.

"Our strengths lie differently but even if they aren't alike, the both of us are still able to help..."

**48**

She thought of her broken family.

___I-I'm–NO! HELP! T–Mfhmm! MFHMM!_  


"You must never give up...We will endure..."

**47**

She thought of her elusive nanny. A pain shot through her heart.

_Choose love over fear, and you will always win._

"Never quit the fight, _never _quit fight..."

**46**

She thought of the ELFs.

Yo_ur highness, keep going!_

"We will never quit fighting..."

**45**

Of North.

_Men, move! IDTI!_

"...And we will never stop..."

**44**

Of Aster.

_This list is all Jack and I have left so I need to copy it somehow. B-But I'll find a way, I __**know**__ I can!_

"...we will _never stop_."

And the Greek was scratched out with another Guardian word.

_**σταματήσουμε ποτέ...Nash Yano.**_

She dove in. Corridor 8. The pole was in a fake elevator and it shot her up...to the final floor.

**42**

**41**

His breath grew ragged. Her curls flew behind her.

Tooth grew nervous.

**39**

She was met with stairs – no hallways, no corridors, no more signs to read. Just a smooth set of stairs going up to a semi-circular platform.

She jumped by the twos, she cheered at the last one–

A pause.

Her light flew upwards around the crescent-shaped room.

The Antechamber.

And there, in the centre of the opposite wall, above a steel plaque...was a message.

_"La fuerza es siempre mejor cuando se muestra mentalmente."_

Her little hummingbird-like heart shuddered.

"Str-Strength," she mumbled. "...is always in its best when it's shown mentally?"

She frowned all jittery and tired.

Strength is best mentally? Was it a show of gratitude for making it this far? Or another riddle?

Her beam was sporadic.

_'But he's not here! H-He's not __**here!**__'_

**20**

She wasn't sure what she was looking for.

The plaque was empty.

Pink darted everywhere.

**19**

The plaque was blank. It was incomplete...it was waiting for something...

Wasn't it?

She remembered the corridors, what each word translated to...

Her teeth grazed her lip.

"W...W-What was the first hallway again?"

**17**

Her curls jerked. Her eyes narrowed and ready at the plaque.

Her breath billowed forward.

"The sign was...was Bewaak ze_..._"

Blood pressures rose high.

_"Bewaak ze!"_ she couldn't even believe she remembered the Dutch word.

...But nothing happened.

She tried again.

"B-Bewaak ze!"

**12**

Still nothing.

_"BEWAAK ZE!"_

Nothing, _nothing_, was happening!

It mocked her. Mocked her like the projections surrounding Jack.

**10**

"Leave me alone...Leave me alone!"

**9**

"Bew...Bewaak...I-I don't understand what you want! I..."

Her boot stopped assaulting the concrete.

An illustrious, fearful pink hit the floor. The signs floating up to the front of her head.

"_... skyt dem, __**Bewaak **__ze, Prot..."_

No, wait.

"_...tect them, __**guard**__ them...Prote–"_

"Guard...you wanted the translation...Guard..."

Fervour returned with the snap of her neck. She cried.

"Guard! It's _guard!"_

A sound accepted her word and a new one lit up, burning neon green on the plaque.

_Accepted...GREENYA._

Her face lit up. His grew dark.

**2**

Fists found themselves at his sides. A violent blast of air hit the floor at his feet.

**1**

Brown bangs flew up to the ceiling. He glared at ghosts, at his mental demons.

**3 minutes: 00 seconds**

"Leave me the _hell _alone!"

He raised his fists.

**59**

She gasped.

_'Again, Tooth! AGAIN!'_

The next one. Hallway 2...twelve reminders... _**Ενωμένοι.**_

Her lip quivered.

"United!"

Another splash of neon green.

_Accepted...UNDOVO._

**56**

Jack screamed.

Another torrent.

Another scream.

The blue projections kept on standing there, representing everything he thought he'd once stood for.

**54**

_"Assassini!_ Y-You are not an **assassin**!"

_Accepted...AEYT._

**53**

He was fed up.

He wanted out.

He wanted home.

He wanted to fall on his knees, curl up and vanish.

**52**

"B...Bangkit! _**Rise up**__!"_

_REMSKA._

She wouldn't quit. But neither would Jack's memories.

"_**...have always been my founding principles for the GUA-protection, defe-"**_

**51**

She remembered Hallway 7. A tongue she didn't even understand, left her lips.

"I...I-Io...Iodovo!"

_The protectors._

_DET._

"A-_Anyano!"_

_Our project._

_IENOVEEN._

She licked her chapped lips.

"A-And...And we will never stop..._Nash yano!"_

_ANA NUASKVO._

Her boot backpedaled with an audible _thunk!_

**47**

**46**

'**G**REENYA **U**NDOVO **A**EYT **R**EMSKA **D**ET **I**ENOVEEN **A**NA **N**UASKVO'

_"There is a Hero Hidden Within, When Your Gifts Awaken and Hearts Akin"_

A heart fluttered and a spirit was uplifted.

Tooth's mouth fell open.

She'd never felt more infinite, so transcendental. To know such an ubiquitous oath, to _say _it...to understand what agents like Jack Frost had to live by...

Her head nodded for no one but herself.

So simple yet powerful, like moonlight coming out in darkness or a ripple in the ocean.

**40**

Small but enough force to affect, to make change. _ 'Like I can...like anyone can.'_

She tightened her fist _–_ and parted her lips.

**38**

"Th-Th...There is a hero h-hidden within...when your gifts awaken...a-and your hearts akin."

**37**

The wall behind it opened.

Knees, a heart full of vigour, and knees bent slightly. This princess was ready to run.

She knew who would be behind there.

**35**

He pulled up again. His heart going into overdrive.

His senses was mangled, his gene was suffering and now he was seeing double.

He saw the little girl. Long brown hair, face blurred out.

**"_...TU-Tu–I...__Shh, come here...You are my su–"_**

**31**

She ran away. She split into three.

"WAIT!"

Then he saw Tsar Lunar. No, two of them. No, _eight–_

_**"–til ya get that sorted out, I can't blame 'er. Yer a walkin' number."**_

He turned.

Toothiana's handmaidens–

**28**

She couldn't wait, she squeezed through the door.

Something suddenly felt wrong. Something...something in her heart–

"JACK!"

**25**

He snapped his head up.

Tooth's clones, so tiny and so real, were suddenly grabbed sideways.

One by one, they were carried away by North's ELFs. They each dematerialised into the air.

**_"W-We weren't nor...*sob* n-normal–"_**

His chest tightened. He reached for Tiana. She turned blue and ghostly, passing through him like a cold splash of water.

"No..._No!_"

Tooth ran.

**22**

She tripped again.

"A-AH!"

Her chin smacked against the long, dark flight of concrete stairs.

_Hum sab ek saath hai...We are all one together._

"J...Jack! Don't leave! DON'T LEAVE!"

**20**

"...DON'T_ LEAVE!"_

His head twitched. His vision blurred in protest.

A head shake. Maybe two.

"T...T–"

He didn't want to see her.

She wouldn't be real. She wouldn't be–

**16**

"I'm r...right here!"

Her knees were unsteady, her flashlight quivered.

But her boots were a drum. Higher and higher she'd climb.

Nothing more, nothing less.

"I-I'm RIGHT HER–"

**14**

_"_...I-I'm_ RIGHT H–"_

_**"**__AA_AAAHHH!"

He spun in circles. He heard a high-pitched ringing...but it turned into–

He covered his ears.

The sisters, the ELFs, the blue spies, _everyone_...they all looked up and screamed.

_**"**__GE_T OUT!"

He looked. Blue arms moving and pointing away. The ceiling flickered into the night sky.

The moon shone down...then yellow goggles...dark clothes...

**7**

_Pitch's Nightmares_...and illusions of spies from other government agencies – all solid and dark against the sea of blue.

And they attacked his memories...they attacked the projections.

Attacked the ELFs, Tooth's sisters, and the other GUARDIANs.

_**"**__K._O.S!"

_**"**__C_HOSEN Protoc–"

**6**

The stairs were endless. Her side stitched in pain and her sweat was cold.

"Please be there! _Please_ be there!"

She could hear nothing but silence at the top – Jack's head was everything but.

**_"–INE SECONDS!"_**

**_"EIGHT!"_**

**5**

Horror. Cold horror.

**_–her hair in the wind and a dot on her ch–_**

It was stroking, grasping, clutching, and _squeezing _his heart.

_**"...will see...the world will turn Pitch B–"**_

_'No!'_

He watched one GUARDIAN get a bag over his head, an ELFs' throat slit from behind. He watched as they all were terminated until one by one the illusions fell and vanished.

**_–smell of hot asphalt from the tires–_**

**3**

ELFs, GUARDIANs...Tiana...BT...the others. Taken and taken down.

**_"FIND HIM! FIND HIM AND THIA–"_**

**_–leaped from the shadows and twisted his leg around–_**

His eyes grew glassy. His throat was dry. He felt stripped of everything he was.

**_"–ack! You promi–YOU PROMISED!"_**

He tightened his fists, wind trying to meander through his fingers.

**2**

"Stop it–"

**_Bang!_****_–_**pulled his staff out of the man**_–_**

**1**

_"STOP IT!"_

**2 minutes: 00 seconds**

She heard him. Like a breath of frigid air in her lungs.

"J-JACK!"

She pushed harder.

_"JACK!_"

**58**

He turned and turned. The wind from the vents picked up.

She stopped, ears straining.

**57**

The air shifted, a crescendo coming.

**56**

"DON'T DO _ANYTHING!"_

**55**

_"_...'_O ANYTHING!"_

He flexed his fingers so violently, he thought they'd bend out of shape. The memories were blurry, the visions were fake. But her voice was clear.

"T...Tooth don't–"

She heard her name. She jumped the last two steps.

**54**

"JACK!"

**53**

Her body ached. His muscles felt bruised – and he saw...

His blue irises swiveled like mad.

She was there.

**52**

In her sari.

**51**

In her dress.

**50**

In her coat.

In her sweater.

In his dream.

And all these versions of her were running, running toward him. Running to _save_ him – and he panicked.

"No! N-NO!"

**48**

She climbed up and saw him.

She ran too and then there were nine.

Nine Thias, nine Toothianas, nine_ Tooths_, and he couldn't...he couldn't–

_'She's not here, they're all fake...All of them.'_

**45**

His breath was a like a fish caught on a hook. Savagely snagged and gasping for life.

**44**

She saw him fall on his knees. He clutched his head.

Alone and in the dark, a flourish of frost brushed around him.

The wind grew stronger, her severity worsened.

"JACK, _DON'T!_"

**42**

**41**

She was so close, he watched her raise her hand for him – they all did.

**40**

Something burned in his chest and a deep cold passed through him.

**39**

Down his arms, to his fingers.

And Tooth saw.

**38**

His face grew dark. His teeth were bared. And in her final scream, he shut her out.

**37**

"JACK–"

**36**

"TOOTH–_"_

**35**

_"NOOOO!"_  
_"NOOOO!"_

His vision turned red...he threw down his fists to the floor.

And the wind ripped apart.

He pushed it all away – the wind, the others Tooths, _everything_.

She screamed and rocketed away.

**31**

A concrete wall met her back.

She coughed violently and heaved in a breath.

"J...Ja–"

The wind blew away all the visions, the ghosts, the fighting, the memories. Only howling, and an unbearable cold in his heart he could hear.

He choked back a gasp, grinded his teeth. His eyes shut tight and he clutched his hair.

**28**

The frost spread like wildfire, the room lit neon blue with his gene.

**27**

She watched him through the high pressure. His head bent in all his destruction. He hit the floor – a powerful flourish of cold air froze the water vapour around his knees, creating more rime.

She cried, eyes wet, body trembling.

"J-JAAACK!"

The wind snatched his name from her lips.

_'He can't hear me! He can't see me!'_

**23**

She fell to the floor and crawled frantically.

Crawled against the wind. Against her fear. She'd be damned if she couldn't–

"I-I'm here! JACK, I'M RIGHT HERE! ST-STAY WITH ME!"

**20**

_ST-STAY WITH M–**"**__**Que...Que-Quedate conmigo!"**_

He couldn't breathe. His muscles tensed and with every rush of air a shooting pain sliced through his brain.

He couldn't abate his emotions. Couldn't banish the memories. Couldn't swallow his fear.

_**"**__H_ow am I–Th-This can't b–"

His eyes blurred to the brink of tears and he squeezed them shut.

_**"**__co_mpromise...I can't even...No!"

He kept ignoring the voices.

She kept ignoring the wind.

Inch by inch. Metre by metre. She dragged her body across the frigid concrete.

_"JACK!"_

**16**

The wind stole his name from her lips.

His bangs flew skyward and his hood fluttered by his ear, his excess energy wouldn't let him.

He heard her again – but she _wasn't there_!

"I...H-H–"

Another shockwave was itching ready at his fingertips.

**12**

She kept her eyes on him.

_Je moet sterk blijven...Keep fighting...keep fighting!_

**10**

She needed to hurry.

"JACK! STOP IT, ALREADY! **STOP!**"

**_"...'hat good is that, to inflict harm on something so defenceless and innocent?"_**

**9**

_'Only five more metres, Tooth!'_

"Gah, I...I-I..."

Three more metres–

_**"****N******__o_us sommes unis!"

Two more!

"T..._Ta–"_

One–

He choked out slightly.

She panicked.

"JACK!"

**6**

And when he dropped his hand for a split second to kill the wind, she lifted herself off the ground.

She jumped.

**5**

She caught his sleeve–

**4**

–before the wind blew her away.

"NOO!"

**3**

She dragged him with her and in her tug, he lost focus.

She wrapped her arms around his middle – he unconsciously did the same – and she took the brunt of the hit.

A concrete wall hit her tailbone again, her pain immeasurable.

"H-_HAAH!"_

Stars and red clouded her eyes.

She collapsed into Jack as they slumped to the ground.

**00 : 59**

Blue, arctic eyes were unfocused and dull. Eyelids fluttered. Body temperature fell dangerously. He was in a trance.

**00 : 58**

Tiny hands moved up to lean shoulders. She pictured a hospital bed, a pan full of needles, the bloodied cloth in his mouth. "J...J-_Jack!"_

**00 : 57**

He was so tired, so numb...suddenly so weak.

He couldn't see her face.

**00 : 56**

He saw something else...something else...

A tree.

A tall tree...

**00 : 55**

Tall trees, snow capped rooftops, lush green grass–**"JACK!** _**Jaaaack!"**_

"_E..."_

**00 : 54**

**"**_**...Jack!"**_

_"E...Emma."_

She stopped. "W-What?"

**00 : 53**

"Emma..._E-Emma, where..."_

"W-Who's Emma?!"

Another girl? _Another?!_

"Jack, stop it! _W-Wake up!"_

**00 : 51**

"E–_"_

_"JACK!"_

A blink.

Then two.

And a whiff of peppermint.

The arctic was clear again. His lips fell open. Gasping, panting.

She was solid, she was real...she was so close.

"T...Toothia–Wh...You..."

**00 : 49**

He didn't even think – he gripped her tight for a moment, body trembling while blue irises flit nervously around the empty darkness.

He saw his calamity, his destruction. Dying wind and frozen water vapours slashing the concrete...H-He could do that?

Eyelids shut, he gasped. She nearly cried and gritted her teeth.

**00 : 47**

"Why did you leave?! _Wh-Who_ are you–"

_**"**__.._.'dgment roo–ro...will d-decide w–"

**00 : 46**

He opened his mouth–she wouldn't have it.

"We have to go! FOLLOW ME!"

Her body motioned for the door. He looked back one more time.

He grabbed her hand unsteadily.

"N-No! This way!"

"But y–"

"No, trust me!"

_**"**__._..'ACK_–__**You can't**__–__**"**_

He gritted his teeth.

Boots stomped, lungs struggled, and hearts nearly giving out in their chests. But it wasn't over.

He knew of one more pole at the end of the room.

They both clutched it, locking their palms onto the light.

–_Center gene identified–_

He gripped her waist, she hooked under his arm.

It catapulted them up.

**00 : 42**

The speed was too much, the air too thin.

_我们会坚持战斗下去。Wo men hui jian chi zhan dou xia qu...We will never quit fighting._

Tooth bit down on her lip. Jack shut his eyes in frustration.

**_"...'reak her heart–What's wrong is...y...you...y-you almost died!"_**

His chin met her hair.

But it was worth the trip – it tossed them back into the Core.

**00 : 40**

She helped him (and his ailing heart faster) up than he thought.

Another set of boots came.

Six feet of hella pissed gawked at the two of them.

"THIA! Bloody_ hell_, princess! Y-You found him! I almos–"

"I-I know!"

He relieved her load by helping the bloke.

"I've got the list!"

"Thank g–"

"Let's get out 'ere!"

**00 : 38**

**00 : 37**

More stomping, more panting, all near to tears with a thousand questions.

But they didn't stop.

_Jangan berhenti...Never stop._

Not after they left the Core, SI, or the grandmaster hall for the last time.

"Th-The elevator's so far! Will it even open?!"

"Hang on!"

Aster unhooked another weapon under his coat and in his belt. He whipped it and let it go ahead of them.

Pink, green, and blue irises watched it spin and zip down to the elevator. When it neared, it made a sharp turn back toward him after releasing three program rewriters onto the elevator door. The door opened the weapon came back to Aster.

The princess' mouth fell open.

**00 : 30**

"A-A _boomerang?"_

"Feelin' better about the door now, princess?"

"Much!"

**_"_–_proud I was of each one I have selectively chosen and given codenames for."_**

There was red everywhere.

Flashing, blinking, _blaring._

When the Core would be destroyed, so would everything else.

"Remember this moment, frostbite!"

**00 : 28**

"This is th' last time you'll ever get t' see this place!"

**00 : 27**

"I'm_ counting_ on it."

They rushed in.

It sealed shut and shot up just as fast as it had lowered them down before.

Her boots bounced more than humanely possible. His eyes blinked repeatedly. Their gloves would split if they didn't stop squeezing so tightly.

"Please..."

**00 : 24**

"..._please!"_

**00 : 23**

_Shiiick!_

"Get out now!"

The boys performed a easy wall climb. Tooth backed up and made a daring climb herself. They both caught of her arms and hauled her up.

Then they sprinted.

**00 : 20**

Sprinted for their lives.

_**"**__D_evi sorgere!"

**00 : 19**

"The snow's too thick!"

_**"**__P_orque lo que más importa–"

**00 : 18**

"We're never gonna–"

"Oy, you two, grab on!"

Aster's arms swooped around both of them. They held his shoulders tightly unsure of what he was planning.

_Umoja...Unity._

He picked up speed.

"When I count to three, jump! Ready?!"

Jack barely understood. Tooth's lip quivered.

"Y-Yeah!"

"Alrigh', _one!_"

**00 : 16**

_"Two!"_

**00 : 15**

_"THREE!"_

They both jumped. So did the hacker with his gene's second gift.

Snow blew away as their feet left the ground.

And he shot them off like a bullet. _A mile away from the field._

**00 : 14**

**00 : 13**

Snow bit into their skin, ice plunged into their cores, air left their chests.

Their hearts slipping into their stomachs. The ground left their feet. The wind caught their clothes.

Jack narrowed his eyes, ready for the fall. Tooth curled in closer to Edmund.

"H-H–Oh my _god!"_

Gravity took over, hard and fast and hard like stones. A voice came gruff and angrily.

**00 : 12**

"Climb on my back, you two!"

**00 : 11**

"I can absorb the fall on my own but y–"

_**"–******__i_s more impor–'n here..."

The wind picked up.

**00 : 10**

Aster and Tooth turned.

Jack's eyes were hard and focused. He moved out his hand and flexed the fingers in the wind.

**00 : 09**

"What's he–"

Tooth felt the wind caress her face.

_**"'**__ot_ giving on..."

**00 : 08**

A bitter howl, a rush of cold. She lost her vision to tears. The wind swirled up at Jack's command.

_**"******__..._an't...I CAN'T!"

**00 : 07**

In a powerful surge, it lifted them up slightly. Absorbing the speed, waning the impact – they bounced on an invisible cushion.

**00 : 06**

It saved their lives, and in a violent flurry of snowflakes and dirt, it tossed them into the soft snow.

**00 : 05**

A grunt, a squeal, a brutal tumble.

**00 : 04**

Bones rattled, lungs shuddered.

**00 : 03**

Snow caked their hair.

**00 : 02**

Their hands were shaky and they coughed out violently.

**00 : 01**

And a second later...

**00 : 00**

The bomb went off.

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "Take It All Away" – RED****** Tooth and Jack's desperation song. Thanks again you guys and as always, everything will be explained in the long run!**


	29. No Mind, No Mercy

**One of you called my imagination crazy...and I like that. Haha and I'm glad you all survived the last chapter. I knew it was hard but it was intentionally confusing to reflect the actual severity of the situation. Thanx for always being kind and patient and not giving up! (: Now here's another chapter – back in original format lol. The next installment will be out but the end of the weekend (haha I hope!)**

* * *

**_"_I'm not afraid of tomorrow. I'm only scared of myself. Feels like my insides are on fire. And I'm looking through the eyes of someone else."**

* * *

_Empty field, time unknown_

**_Piuuuuuu..._**

It was just like Wales. That horrible high-pitch ringing hurt their ears and muffled their voices.

_"...m...my back!"_

_"Argh, w...where's..."_

_"Roll this way...m'over here!"_

Tooth, Aster, and Jack all stumbled into a stand and held their breath, waiting for the field to blow. For a while, nobody heard or saw anything but the wind and hoarfrost–

**_Fwp!_**

Suddenly, something like an invisible wave washed over the three of them and a violent pulse in the air. It threw their hair up for a second and then the ground began to rumble. It was a tiny sort of earthquake that vibrated under their boots. It shifted the air and when they looked a mile away, back at the field, the sky around it lit up turquoise.

A second a later, the shockwave from the bomb hit them and the sky turned orange. Aster stumbled back and covered his ears – his earplugs didn't seem to work.

Toothiana spun, feeling like a large hose just smacked into her. She yelped and tried to steady herself but when she turned all the way around, her eyebrows shot up. The bomb lit up the field, the snow, and she watched Aster and Jack bend their heads in pain. She rushed forward.

Aster heard boots coming toward him and peeked through his eyelids. He saw the princess' figure race at him and he tried to steady himself, ready to hold her – she flew right past him.

When he turned his head, the hacker watched as Princess Thia slipped her arms around Jack Frost's shoulders as he started to lean forward.

"What's wrong?!" she yelled but he dropped his chin on her shoulder. Jack shook his head, not wanting to scare her and after a second, he took a deep breath – his newly sewn up bullet hole was stinging painfully under all their stress. He pulled his head up.

Jack looked down at her and Tooth's jewel-toned eyes took in his face – the fire behind her lit up his smooth, clammy features. Jack frowned as she stood against him with her dark skin shadowed and irises glistening. He then turned her so the two of them could see the fire. They said nothing and imagined the company, Project GUARDIAN, and everything miles beneath their feet disappear forever.

Aster eyed them for the longest time. His fist tightened in his glove.

Another ten seconds later, the orange light flickered away and a horrible rumbling in the dirt stopped. The three stayed silent until the light from the full moon adjusted their dilated pupils and the ice in the air pierced their lungs.

Tooth was the first to move.

She slipped her arm out Jack's glove and moved away. Her back was aching but she didn't want Jack to know that it was his fault that she'd slammed_ twice_ against a concrete wall – but Aster picked up on it. When her boots crunched several steps away in the snow, he glared at Jack.

"Where'd you go?" he mumbled, still short of breath about the whole thing. He also wanted to steer the conversation away from any questions they had about his jumping abilities – like Jack, some touchy subjects for him were better left untouched.

Jack looked up at him with a stony gaze. He opened his mouth to shoot something bitter but his head twitched. He suddenly remembered crescent-shaped rooms...blue lights...screaming...

His face paled and he looked down afraid that he'd see what he _thought_ he saw.

"The..." Jack's eyes grew wide. "I...I was in the Judgement Room."

Aster took a step back.

"The..._The Judgement Room?_ Wh-Why did y–How did–"

"I-I don't know, I–"

Jack thought he heard something and snapped his head to the left. But there was nothing there, just another patch of the dark forest. A puff of air left his lips.

Tooth looked back at them as something akin to dread slipped into her stomach. "Judgement room? What's a..."

Aster looked at her, his face dismal. He almost forgot she was there for a moment.

"It's...It's where GUARDIANs go when they are called by the board, the blokes upstairs."

"Like that Tsar Lunar guy?"

Aster's breath caught in his throat. The second the man's name left her mouth, he saw her face scrunch with emotional pain.

"When we got the gene and finished our training, they sent us up there so our codenames would be assigned. Nine levels to test our skills as elite global spies and faith in the program's tenets. But it's a maze and that's all you ever go there for...unless you get in trouble."

He then snapped his head back at Jack.

"I've only been in there _once_," he muttered starkly. "You're only _supposed_ to be in there _once_! How'd you even remember the way?"

Jack looked back at the Australian and took a step back.

"I just...I just sorta remembered."

"No," Aster argued. "No, they make you forget it after you go through the trial once. So unless you were sent all the way up there for another reason, you couldn't have remembered all those signs–"

Tooth's eyebrows shot up. "S-Signs?"

Jack ran a hand through his hair so roughly that the ends shot up higher than they usually were. He let out an angry sigh.

"I saw...and there were these..." Aster and Tooth's eyebrows scrunched together nervously as he continued. "But I didn't even know I was there until Tooth showed up and I–"

He stopped.

Both he and Aster looked at her at the same time – but she was already frowning.

"Princess..." the hacker's deep green eyes bore into hers. He took a cautious step forward but she took several steps back. "Princess, how di–"

"I just read the signs," she said simply. "...I-I followed the words that were bolded out–"

"Bolded out? What words? They're all the same," he tried to reason."You'd have to be crazy to read it all at once you wouldn't be able to–"

A dark laugh left her lips. "Crazy..." she repeated. "Cr-Crazy, crazy, huh?"

They looked at her worriedly but she was done – she was done being afraid, being scared. No, now...now she was just mad.

"Thia..." he urged. "How did you manage to find Jack all the way up there? Those corridors were riddled with expert-level multilingual codes–"

She shocked him when her eyes shot up in an angry glare.

"Really, Edmund? _Really? _Isn't it obvious by now?"

He and Jack didn't say a word as she walked away from them. She clutched at her hair, careful not to catch her feather earrings.

"The video...the th-child, that...Argh, you don't get it?!"

When memory flashed in her head, she shut her eyes.

* * *

_Twelve years ago._

* * *

_Her father's big smile grew wider as he hefted her on his lap. He and Tooth never sat on the throne unless he had to for formal meetings so they were sitting on the steps close to a large window._

_Haroom's wide smile showcased his chipped front tooth and she laughed and poked the corner of it again. _

"_Is _this _where I come from, baba?" she always joked._

"_Yes!" he laughed. "And see what you did? A piece of my tooth is gone!"_

"_No, I'm not!" she giggled. "I'm right here!"_

"_My tooth turned into a little girl?! How strange!"_

_And when she poked him on the nose, he tickled her sides until her face turned purple. Who needed a mother when your father was the best dad in the world? She was never sad for herself because of him. But she did always worry that maybe he was lonely. But then he'd put his hand on her head and sigh wholeheartedly._

"_You are so special, Toothie," And she'd looked up at him with wide, pink eyes and tilt her head. His voice could get so soft and...serious. He then rubbed her hair. "And you do not even know it yet."_

_She'd always thought he was just talking about her future role as a queen._

* * *

_Nine years ago._

_Little Toothiana was padding through the palace library in her satin slippers. She was holding a tiny hummingbird gently in her hands. _

_Her plan was to sneak it through the library and shortcut to the royal garden. It was because she'd overheard the palace maids say the hibiscus had finally bloomed and she knew hummingbirds loved their nectar – so after tricking one into her hand with some syrup, she decided to carry it there. Hopefully it'd want to stay with her...she'd didn't have any siblings (at least, not yet) or friends her age in the castle. _

_She scurried through the tall stacks and shelves until she stopped – something was rustling very loudly. When she peeked around a corner, she saw Mr. Sandy writing vigorously on some reports and drawing an image on a piece of paper. When he lifted it up for a moment...she saw pink eyes. He sensed something and turned. Tooth hid behind a pile of books. She realised after that day, every Thursday, Mr. Sandy would vanish off into the library around the same time. When she asked about the drawing, he told her to never ask again – he was 'embarrassed with his art' and with Tooth oh-so compassionate for her young age, she didn't ask again thinking one day, he'd show her when he was ready._

* * *

_Five years ago._

_Tooth and BT were making sure their new sisters were tagging behind as they walked through the Grand Bazaar with their bodyguards. They were on their vacation in Turkey and looking at jewelry. When they passed a fruit stand, another man thought it was also the right time to run by and try to steal an orange. As he brushed the unknown princess' arm, she reacted and tried to grab the fruit from his hand. Everyone panicked but Tooth's fierce bravery kicked in._

"_You can't take that!" the sixteen-year-old cried and the man turned around to hit her. But he froze. He didn't freeze because of the bodyguards or the growing crowds, but because of her eyes, so pink and bright under her hat._

_He shoved her away, completely perturbed by her appearance. (Turkish) "Freak!" And he shoved the orange onto her and dashed away. Tooth was instantly hurt, but her handmaidens didn't try to comfort her. They tried to usher her away, brushing her robes and fixing her hair. Everyone around the market started mumbling and bending down slightly to catch Tooth's face under the brim of her summer hat._

"_Don't listen to him, Tooth," the twelve-year-old BT muttered bitterly under her own hat while ten-year-old Tia and eight-year-old Tiana grabbed both her arms. Their purple eyes looked cold and serious. Maybe they'd just felt offended too, with her being a princess and their sister – they had no reason to feel hurt either...didn't they?_

* * *

Tooth narrowed her eyes and clenched her teeth angrily.

"The anomaly..._it's me."_

"Princess, you don't–"

"No, Edmund! It's true! I-It's..." she stumbled on her words as she looked around for some kind of anchor. The fear though about the whole truth started to creep in.

"It is! It makes sense now because I...I..."

When she looked up and realised how worried their faces looked, Tooth dropped her hands from her head like limp fish. She took a deep breath, more like a gasp for air, and her fists tightened.

"I can...I-I can understand every language!" she finally confessed and even Jack, in his less composed state, stopped to look at her. Her face twisted with a deep frown.

_"...What?"_

"It's_ true!_" she cried. _"Every_ and _any_, I...I always have, since I was little...but I never told anyone. Because...B-Because I didn't want anyone to be weird around me!"

Jack's eyebrows furrowed bitterly.

"Including me?"

"_Especially_ you!"

He froze.

"A-And...and I never _had_ mom, okay? Th-They said she died giving birth to me!"

Aster shook his head. He remembered the reports on her but refused to accept it now that he might be seeing it face value.

"Sheila, ya...you don't know if they're connected. Your mother and the FAIRYQUEEN could be two differe–"

"But weren't you listening?! About the clones? I-I have eight identical handmaidens. _The eyes?_ _The blonde streak?!"_ And Tooth forcefully yanked at a piece of her dark bangs. "It's here! _I _have it but I'm hiding it! And no one could _ever_ explain why!"

She then looked at Aster heatedly.

"You can't tell me that silver streak you have was something _you _did, was it?"

Aster didn't answer.

"Well, is it?"

"No, Thia," he sighed. "It wasn't. It came after the gene."

_'Just like Jack's hair. Just like BT.'_

Tooth continued to grow scared as she continued confessing her heart's pain.

"And other than knowing that my mother was from India, I...I didn't know anything about her, _nothing!_ So you can't _tell_ me that this..._all of this–"_ Tooth motioned back to the field faraway "–hasn't been connected to me this entire time!"

Jack saw her hands flex at her sides and his eyes widened. She'd _never_ done that before.

Tooth's heart beat so loud and so hard that all the cardio she lost searching for Jack threatened to creep up and tear her apart.

_Lub-dub. Lub-dub._

"It's me...It's me..."

"To–"

"No, Jack." _Lub-dub. "NO."_

And he stopped. Her teeth were clenched and her gaze was feral. It reminded him too much of the penthouse from the other night when she ripped all her jewelry off before she–

"There's _nothing _you can say to make this better, alright!?" she pleaded and he blinked painfully. "My entire _life_ is...is...it's just... "

She suddenly stopped.

Tooth looked at them and at the field. She thought of home, she thought of the corridors...she thought of the mother she never knew.

"I'm born with it," she murmured. Her lips were lethargic and her heart was numb. "I'm the only ever...e-ever born with a Center Gene." Then her gaze flew up to Jack and Aster. "That's why I was cloned..."

The two ex-spies didn't say a word, let alone move. They could barely stomach themselves how the company they'd once fought so proudly for, had been doing this to one person, to one, tiny woman in secret. For twenty years, while they were kids themselves, she was being used like a...like a–

"FREAK SHOW!" Tooth suddenly snapped and she kicked the snow. "That's all I ever was to those men–" Another kick. "–to this company–" Another strike. "And to my own _mother!"_

Aster's eyebrows shot up and pedaled forward. "Thia, d–"

"NO! I...Sh-She made me a...She probably had me for the sake of...Why didn't he–Why didn't my father tell me...Did he know?!" Tooth covered her face. "Did he know that my _entire life_ has been a freak show...my face, my clones, my ability...it was just an experim–"

Tooth's hands pushed up into her hair again and stumbled onto the snow thanks to her aching back. Her knees instantly shot with cold pain from frigid dirt but she didn't care. Although she hated her mother more than ever now for creating her to become this, ultimately, _she_ was responsible for her mom's mutation and death, for the deaths of other GUARDIANs mutated and killed off, the INNOCENCE program, and the CHOSEN protocol that came because of it.

"I thought I could _save people_ but I...I-I'm not even a ruler yet and I've already had _hundreds_ of people killed because I...I...I can't _believe _I caused all this!" she whispered horrifically and she bent her head down so close to the snow that her hair curtained around her face. "I'm sorry...I-I'm so sorry!"

Before they knew it, Tooth started to choke and Jack feared that she'd throw up again.

"Princess!" Aster cried.

"I d-don't...I-I _don't deserve_ this! I do-des'rv t'be a...a_–_"

When he saw her clutch handfuls of snow, he tried to move forward.

_"Tooth, you–"_

But another memory flashed before his head – he gasped.

Tooth spun around. Her hair whipped her face and her mouth almost didn't close again. She didn't realise how hard her heart was pounding in her chest but she looked at Jack.

Somehow, hearing his voice was the thing that seemed to get through to her.

_'M-Maybe because I'm so used to him already...'_ she lamented – that was all she could really guess at the moment.

"J-Jack?" She watched as the brunette threw a hand to the front of his leather jacket.

He started to pant, looking around the three of them with a cautious daze. Tooth didn't understand. Aster eyed him funny.

"You had to go all the way up to the Judgement Room to remember?" he asked, also wary of Jack's turn in behaviour. Jack twisted his head at him but his eyes were slightly out of focus.

"Remember what?"

"Remember wh–_Your memories!"_

Jack blinked and took a deep breath as he looked behind Aster again. The hacker scrunched his eyebrows. "Y'mean...they didn't come back yet?"

"No, I...a-_aah!" _Jack clutched his head and turned around. He started walking away on his own accord and the two panicked.

"Oy! Jack!"

"Jack, what's wrong?!" Tooth cried and got up, speeding in the snow after him with Edmund. All her distress over herself melted away as the fear for Jack, created an eerie chill in her spine. It slowly started spreading to the rest of her body. He was acting weird – the cool and controlled Jack she knew and admired so well was suddenly losing it – and she _didn't_ want him disappearing again.

One heartache had been enough.

"Jack!" she tried again. What she didn't know was at the same she yelled, Jack heard her shout from four different directions.

_**"****Jack!"  
"Jack!"  
"Jack!"  
****"Jac****k!"**_

He snapped his head up and stopped.

Jack looked around. He was suddenly alone in the field, all by himself – at least, he _though_t he was.

But when he turned behind him...he saw _himself_, another Jack, a few feet away spinning to face him too. Jack's mouth fell open – so did the other's. It was the most disturbing mirror effect he'd ever experienced, and he'd been to a magic show once or twice in his life to know how it felt...didn't he?

_**"******__H_aha, come on, Jack! Let's get a seat up front!...Heh, alright, alright! Slow your rol–Bretyam shad 5016 FROST."

Jack rubbed his eye. The other Jack did the same, and when both dropped their hands, he realised that the other Jack...his skin wasn't white and his lips weren't pale. He looked almost healthy in comparison – rosy cheeks, peach skin and brown hair that seemed to shine with natural colour. But then–

_**"******__G_unner division, move into sector 4!"he heard someone scream directly into his left ear. _**"Speed count doctor is 124 npm, 132 npm, 143–WHERE'RE YOU HIDING HIM?!"**_

Jack gasped.

Toothiana finally caught up to him grasped his arm.

"J–"

He reacted. Reaching down, he untwisted from Tooth's grip and pulled her arm high above her head. She squealed.

"Aah, Jack! No, don't–"

When he blinked, the other Jack was gone and the princess and Aster were standing in front of him. Jack dropped her wrist instantly, eyes wide.

"I'm sorry, Tooth! I–" But Aster wouldn't have it.

The taller brunette gripped him by the shoulders and pulled him a few steps away from the princess.

"What're you seeing?" he growled and Jack's mouth fell open

"W-What?"

"I gotta know!" the Aussie shouted desperately. "What're ya seein'! Is it the flashes–"

"No, I–" Jack's habit of shutting people out wanted to slip in. He wanted to tell Cottontail to mind his own business and get the hell off him...but the part of him that was desperate to know everything was starting to grow. It overtook his introverted state, and the words spewed from his mouth.

"I keep...I'm seeing people!"

"Seeing w_...what?!"_

Tooth took a step forward, not bothering to cradle her arm in case it scared him again. "Jack, what are you–"

"Bloody–D-Did this happen back in the room? Up in the halls? In the _Core?_"

"It actually started when we walked on the field. They're everywhere but...I..."

Jack faded out when he saw two female scientists appear behind Tooth.

He knew they were hallucinations now that he'd been so exposed, but they didn't look like ghosts anymore. The two women looked real, like they were physically there – he frowned. Were they from the GUARDIAN program?

"Dammit, Jack!" Aster griped when it looked like he wasn't paying attention to him.

Jack watched them walk. They were mumbling, he could hear it.

_**"******__W_here will they go?" one murmured worriedly – they were saying things he'd heard too many times in his head.

The other shook her head.

_**"******__I _don't know...hopefully he doesn't get a B.E. like the others," she answered.

_**"**__T_hat K.O.S. though will take care of that...poor boy." Jack froze. He'd never heard the continuation of that conversation. When he blinked, Jack didn't have time to recover.

Suddenly, he saw another flash go off in his head and he closed his eyes.

_**An older memory. He was him, the him-'before-he-had-white-hair'-Him. And he was standing barefoot in next to another agent. **_

_**"**__B_end that back leg more, Clint!" an older male yelled. "Look at Jack's stance...Good, NOW AGAIN! TAEKEUK 3 JANG!"

_**Jack and the entire team clapped their hands once, then with a yell, they all did twenty movements of poomsae, moving effortlessly across the large mat – they weren't in practice, but they were demonstrating their knowledge of their skills and what they understood from the motions.**_

Jack opened his eyes. He saw the scientists still there and still walking toward them in the snow.

A second later, they walked around Tooth. Jack thought they'd notice he was there too, but when the women regrouped and kept mumbling to themselves, they walked right through Jack. He gasped when they fazed with a cold, blue light through his body and he tore himself away from the hacker.

"_See?!_ It happened again!"

"See _what?!"_ Tooth scrunched her eyebrows and shook her head. "We don't–"

"They saw you, the two scientists, but they didn't see _me_ and they just...everyone just keeps walking through me–" Jack whirled on Aster with a dark look. "I returned here, I came back to the Core, but I... Is this supposed to happen?!"

Aster shook his head a little before he balled his fists.

"Bugger that, mate! You should be having memories! _Flashes_ not seein'..." the Aussie couldn't even think straight anymore and ran a hand through his hair.

_"Bullocks,_" he finally sighed. "We...L-Lemme call in the Santa, hang on."

Tooth blinked up at him.

"The _who?"_

"North, sheila. _Nicholas._ I've never been in this sorta situation before!"

He quickly stepped away from them, walking a few feet in the snow to make the emergency call on his complink. With him gone, Tooth narrowed her eyes and stepped up to Jack. He caught the look and frowned.

"Don't _you_ go giving me that face either," he grumbled but she smacked him upside the head. He bristled instantly.

_"Hey, _what was th–"

"Why the _heck_ didn't you say anything the minute we got here?!" she exclaimed and threw her hand back at the other field. "I thought you were getting _better! _Look, now you've got Edmund all worried!"

Jack rubbed his blue, contact-free eye.

"I thought I _was_ getting better!" he argued. "I thought seeing illusions was a part of putting together my memories."

"Well, clearly it's not!" she hissed. "Something's wrong and I just _can't_ see you...I mean, I..."

Jack frowned as he watched her suddenly stumble over what she had wanted to say. Tooth widened her eyes for a brief second and he sorta panicked.

"What?" he mumbled. "Tooth!"

"I-It's nothing, I..." but she faded out and looked over his shoulder to avoid seeing his face. She sighed.

"Just tell me next time...okay?"

He didn't answer.

"Jack, seriously. I need you to promise that you'll tell me next time something's wrong so I don't have to kick you in the balls to get it out of you. Heh, you promise?"

But her awkward, little laugh stopped when she peeked up at him.

Jack was looking ahead again, his blue eyes darting this way and that. His mouth kept opening and closing like he wanted to say something to someone she couldn't see.

Another memory came back.

_**His hair was white. It was from **_**after**_** he joined the GUARDIAN program. He was sitting between two other agents on a helicopter. They and the other six from the **_**Winter**_** division were getting one final briefing from their team leader.**_

_**"I am in charge of the drop off for you agents today!" he cried over the harsh winds. Jack could've pushed them away but he was too focused on the task at hand. "Now get ready, we're entering the No Fly Z–"**_

"Jack, no! Ignore them!" she cried and she moved forward, trying to wave her glove in front of his face. She was afraid that touching him would set off his kill-mode again – her method worked and he blinked again.

When Jack looked down at her, the dark-skinned princess sighed gratefully. The moonlight behind him lit up her face and he used the iridescent shine from her pink eyes as something to focus on so he wouldn't get pulled away again.

"Tha...Sorry," he murmured angrily and his fists tightened. Tooth bit her lip.

_"Oy, you two!"_

Jack and Toothiana turned as Aster raced over. When they caught his face in the moonlight, it was paled beyond belief and his mouth hung open fearfully.

Jack was the first to react.

"What did he say?" he urged but Aster was still trying to collect himself. He was shaking his head a little, inflicting self-shame on himself.

"Bloody, I...I didn't know," he mumbled despondently. "I'm _smarter_ than this and I almost–"

"Edmund?" Tooth tried to urge caringly. "What did he say?"

At her soft tone, he looked up from his babbling and gave them both a wide-eyed look. Then his thick eyebrows furrowed together.

"I erred."

Tooth's own eyebrows knitted together as she started to wring her wrists together. "W-What?"

"I made a mistake!" he exclaimed and pressed his forehead to his gloved fist. "No bugger that, _we _made a mistake!"

"Why? What did Nor–" but Aster had already whipped his head at Jack. His face was so severe, he reminded Tooth of that nasty principle she had back in grade school. He spit words, and always wanted bad kids to be sent to his office for a good yelling, but while she was lucky to avoid ever being in there since she was always quiet and a good girl, the stories the other kids told her had scarred her for imagination. Now she thought she was living it.

"We should have _never_ come here," Aster spat and Tooth frowned.

"B-But we thought it was okay...You said the memory would come back if we came, if we stood in the company–"

"That was my mistake," Aster sighed and looked away. "How could I've been so stupid! We shoulda _never_ stopped, we shoulda kept going for that ditch, the one you said you woke up in."

Jack bit the inside of his cheek when the green-eyed brunette looked down at him.

"But I don't even know where it is, idiot! You just wanted us to drive for miles checking out ev–"

"Well, you better hope you get a clue, mate!" Aster argued. "Because we've gotta get you to the place where you first woke up! North says it's a bleeding effect."

For a moment, Jack and Tooth didn't react – the word was so severe it messed up their cognitive thinking. Until Jack's eyebrows slowly knit together.

"What the hell is a bleeding effect?" he muttered darkly.

Aster ran a hand through his hair.

"In the video, remember when that bloke mentioned the...the CHOSEN protocol? Were you even _there_ for that part?" He refused to address the man as TSAR LUNAR or as 'their boss'. He had too many mixed feelings now about everything.

Jack nodded his head slowly.

"Yeah," He ran a hand through his hair. "The GUARDIANs whose memories were erased successfully were sent home and the ones who weren't were killed straight away. Right here."

Jack then pointed at the ground to mean the company and Aster nodded.

"Yeah well, North says that the agents who weren't defragged properly, _like you_, well, that's what some of 'em went through, and how they were picked off. They saw things after the mind wipe...things that weren't there."

Jack tightened his glove, an unnatural chill passing over him. He didn't mean to make the wind pick up as Aster continued.

"North couldn't really elaborate but what I gather from a name like that...i-it means your reality is warping because the memories are coming back to you out of sync."

"Out of _sync?"_ Tooth repeated.

"Remember how North always kept emphasizing that ya _'go back to where it all started'_?"

And Jack nodded, remembering how firm the Cossack's tone had been and how serious his face was. Aster nodded too.

"We jumped that train when we went down to the Core, mate," Aster mumbled with a deep frown. "Going down there, _especially _to the Judgement Room, that was too much. We threw you straight into the deep end when you needed to be eased into the water."

"So my memories..." Jack's eyes widened. "They're falling purposely out of order...b-because I didn't go back to the right site?"

Aster nodded and Tooth felt sick. It didn't make sense – how could such a tiny difference create the biggest backlash? How did memories even _react_ to physical slipups like that?

"It...It must be the gene," Aster finished. His eyes were dark and his eyebrows were scrunched so tightly. "The gene's probably connected somehow to us wakin' up and rememberin' things we should, and seein' things we shouldn't."

And Jack blinked.

He suddenly remembered the dream he had before he woke up after getting shot. Chasing that little girl, Pitch's shadow, Tooth and the gun...and falling...falling into a deep pool of water and floating aimlessly on some current as he–

A memory flickered like a broken video behind his eyes. It was so fast, he almost didn't–but he did, he caught it.

_**He was inside one of those giant, horizontal test tubes he'd seen back in the Core. Facing the ceiling, he floated in the blue water, catching his brown hair float above him before it slowly started to turn wh–**_

Jack clutched his head. The two panicked.

"Jack?" Aster called and leaned down. "Ya need to tell us, right now! Where'd you wake up?"

"I...I-I..."

What happened in the tube? Why was he there? Was that...Was that what had turned him? What _changed _him? He–

Another flash. _**Jack saw someone open a steel door and all the light from outside pooled in. He watched the air from the freezer drift outside as the scientists returned with their thick coats. He lifted his head higher as they approached.**_

_**"**__H_ow do you feel?" one man chattered. Jack looked down at his bare arms. He'd been sitting against the icy wall for two hours with his arms crossed over his bent-up knees. But when he exhaled and they watched his shirtless chest breathe in and out without constriction, Jack looked up and smirked.

_**"**__Is_ that all you got?" as a small puff of air escaped his non-quivering lips.

"Please, Jack! Come on," Tooth urged. "You were gone for so long! You didn't get _any_ new memories of your past?"

He shut his eyes. Someone was suddenly yelling in his ear.

_**"**__W_ake up, agent! Wake up!" And the scientist with the beard and glasses hauled him up from the steel bed.

"My past...my p–trying t–"

"Jack!"Aster gripped his arm. "JACK!"

But Jack started having trouble distinguishing whose voice was calling his name. It sounded Australian, then it sounded female...then it was old, it was faraway, then suddenly it was–

_**"**__Jac_k! JAAACK!" He spun around in someone's kitchen and saw someone tiny disappear into the living room.

Again. It was...

"E...Emma?" he murmured and took a step back subconsciously – but then his boot hit a rock hiding under the snow and Jack fell forward to avoid it. Tooth and Aster reacted as he squatted over the snow with his hands on both sides of his head.

Tooth rushed down to touch his shoulders. "What's wrong?! Tell us what you see! W-Where do we need to go?"

_**He remembered sitting in that hotel room with his hands pushing up into his hair. "Where did you go, Jack? Where did you go?" he'd imagine her saying. He bent his head down over his knees.**_

"I'm sorry, Em...I'm..." Jack started mumbling as his eyebrows furrowed together. Aster's ears perked up in alert.

"Oy, whose she? Whose he talkin' about?!" he asked but Tooth shook her head. She looked up at him.

"I-I don't know! He never mentioned her until I found him in the Judgement Room," she replied. When Tooth looked back at Jack, she frowned.

Who was Emma? And why'd he have such a calling for her? Was she family? A friend? Another spy? His...his girlfriend?

_'She _could _be...'_ Tooth lamented softly to herself. _'He seems pretty...and on just one memory too.'_

It was crucial, so necessary for him (for _all_ of them) to know, but Tooth felt guilty for not wanting to swallow the possibilities. Still, she was his friend, he still needed her.

"Jack..." she asked cautiously. "...w-where is she? Where's Emma?" But he abruptly shook his head.

"I can't, they...They _can't!"_ He gripped his head. Aster and Tooth didn't know it, couldn't see it, but he could feel it. Jack felt that nightmarish chill the first night he woke up alone. It wrapped around his skin like a whip and licked at the parts not covered by his clothes.

**_".._**._**ull him out!" they whispered urgently. "Pull him–" He gasped out when they lowered him onto the ground quickly.**_

"They...a-and I..."

**_Tires then screeched away and for felt like hours, he laid there, drifting in and out of sleep. His entire body was shivering, his were lips struggling._**

"Don't let 'em leak out!" Aster urged. "What do ya see?!"

_**He remembered being dressed decently enough as he got up from the rock-solid dirt and frosted covered grass. And when he looked up, there was a sign.**_

"..opulation: 9,346..." Jack murmured and Tooth froze.

* * *

_"All I know...is that there was a sign next to me when I woke up so that's why–"_

* * *

She shook him gently, her teeth chattering. They all really needed to get out of the cold – but he couldn't stop yet.

"Come on, Jack...c-come _on."_

"9,346," Jack repeated and his scowl deepened as his eyes shut tighter. He couldn't get the chill out of his lungs that night. He kept gasping for air as the moon stared up at him. And the sign beside his body was lit so bright it was all he could do to just keep reading it as he tried to regain his motor skills.

"9,346...n...next 4.7 miles to Lehighton..."

Aster froze.

"Lehighton?" he breathed. The Australian immediately tried to recall where in the _hell_ that city was, what state...Or no wait, wasn't Lehighton was a county in–

Another flash! Again! _**He saw that ball of glitter he'd envisioned back down in the Core. It was beautiful and shiny. The water inside made the sparkles drift up that it'd definitely make–"Oh, pretty–"**_

"...come to..." he suddenly clenched his teeth as the sign in his head suddenly grew large. Jack almost couldn't see it the more he kept reading. And the moonlight was too bright, but he...

"...'elcome t..."

"Jack," Toothiana murmured at her softest pitch. _"...Where are you? _Welcome to_ where?"_

"Welcome to..._Welcome..."_

He gritted his teeth.

_"Welcome to Burgess."_

And the sign in his head vanished and Jack opened his eyes wide – he stared up at Tooth.

"That's it..." Tooth mumbled and pulled away, realizing just then how close she'd been to his face. She blushed and stood up on shaky knees though she kept her hand on his shoulder to let him know she was still there.

"That's it!" she said again looking up at Aster who was also kind of shellshocked at what just happened. "That's where he first woke up! B-But..."

She then looked around the field as if the place would magically appear. She bit her lip.

"Where can we even start to look for–"

"I know it," Aster immediately breathed and a drop of hope fell into both their hearts. "It's a small town 237 miles southeast of here in Pennsylvania."

"Really?!"

And when the brunette nodded vigorously, it was all Tooth could do not to jump on the balls of her feet like a weirdo.

"Oh my gosh...we're...w-we're so close!"

_'And he's from Pennsylvania?' _she couldn't help but mind-comment. _'I thought he'd be from somewhere crazy like California.'_ But then again, his subtle nature and conscientious personality did seem to reflect the keystone state more. She smiled a little before Aster snuffed it out again.

"But we'd better hurry before ya get worse, mate," Aster said and moved down to nudge Jack's shoulder. "We're near the town of Belfast so it'll take us _at least _five hours to drive all the way down there and we already lost alot a time–"

The tech analyst suddenly paused, and when Tooth looked back down to Jack, she understood why.

Jack was frozen.

_"Jack?"_

His hands were still on either side of his head and his eyes were still locked on the spot where Tooth had been when she'd knelt in front of him. He looked hypnotized.

_**Welcome to Burgess...**_

_**Welcome to Burgess...**_

_**Welcome to**__–_

_**"******__WH_O ARE YOU?!" "WHAT?!" Jack saw knives. "You were wanted!" the father yelled and tossed the paper onto the table. Jack didn't understand and shook his head. He saw the mountains in the window–"You endanger this family! This village! Get out!" "But I–""GET OUT!"

"No, no not again! You...You have to..." Tooth dropped in the snow again in front of him – even Aster knelt on one knee to stare at the brunette.

"Snap out of it!" she cried and shook his shoulders. Tooth snapped her fingers as her pink eyes darted all around his barely-noticeable-freckled face. "Please, wake up. _Wake up!"_

Tooth's mind went to...well, it went everywhere...

_"Jack!"_

...The first night they walked through the streets, the hotel, the subway, the dance, the penthouse, the Warren...

_SLAP!_

She smacked him across the cheek.

Aster pulled back slightly.

"Oy! _Don't_..." but when Jack didn't react, he faded out.

The two didn't say anything, so stunned by what had happened. And they couldn't stop shivering in the cold wind and snow.

Jack sat unmoving, unaffected by it.

"_Bloke,"_ Aster mumbled in a deep tone, hoping to coax him out of his trance. "Can you even _hear _us?"

But Jack was still slightly hunched over, looking ahead as, what they guessed was, the bleeding effect taking over – and it scared Tooth to the core. She was sitting straight in front of him again, trying to match his line of vision with hers.

His mouth fell slightly open and he shook his head a little – but it wasn't for her, it was for...whoever he was seeing.

Toothiana tried waving her hand again but when it didn't work, the princess frowned desperately.

_"...Jack_..."

She tucked a hair behind her ear and sighed shakily. Reaching up, she then gently grasped both Jack's hands and pulled them from his head. When they were in his lap, she gently released him.

"Don't worry sheila," Aster said with a sad look before he moved forward and tried to help Jack stand on his own. "Let's get 'im home."

And the two then guided him back to the field and hoped that the forest wasn't destroyed.

They trudged away in the snow quickly but every time Jack spotted a faraway tree, he sometimes saw someone following them – sometimes it was another him, another doppelganger but brown hair, white, and even black...and then they vanished. He blinked sometimes when Aster morphed into Pitch or when Tooth would become that old lady he nearly ran over back in Ho Chi Minh City. But he didn't react – he was still _partially _aware that they really were there, and they still needed Aster's car to get away.

So after piggybacking Jack and Tooth awkwardly on his tall form, Aster made a quick and powerful run before he jumped in the high air again. His gene left a small crater in the snow and dirt – and without Jack to brush it away with the wind, it was noticeable to anyone.

...

_Company's field, 1:13 am_

The tech analyst's muscles still burned with high energy from the jump he pulled and the princess' body was still crumpled slightly from all the pressure she'd just gone through. But Aster's car was still intact, tucked away in the crevice by a fallen tree so he and Toothiana were grateful. The same could not be said about the frontline of the forest. About ten metres in, all the pine trees had been scorched and it looked like some invisible fire had incinerated them. It left a bad feeling in the princess and the hacker's stomach.

Not only were the trees torched...but so was the field. Aster's face darkened.

"L-Looks like the bomb was designed to set off a thermo-nuclear wave," he muttered, his voice gruff and tough as always but his teeth were starting to jitter. "Whatever's burnt up here–" he then pointed at the dirt "–is probably vaporized down there. There'll...There'll be nothin' left down there if the Core sent that wave across all the sectors."

Tooth's lips smacked together as she joined Aster in the snow again.

She'd just finished helping Jack into the back car a second ago. His trancelike state wasn't going away and for all her own heartaches, she wasn't giving up on him. So after she made sure he was at least sitting (and she'd pulled away his gun and his staff and tossed them in the passenger seat), she went to survey the field one last time with the tall brunette.

"A..." she started. "A-Are you mad? 'C-Cause everything you are, everything thing they-ey made you...the company you worked for, i-it's gone now."

But Aster shook his head.

"No Thia," he mumbled. "This place was already a ghost zone...e-everything I knew about it and stood for died and vanished the day they wiped us out."

Toothiana said nothing after looking at him for the longest time. She thought he could really use a hug but she instead settled for touching his arm as a pillar of comfort – she was still too numb and empty about finding out she was cause of its downfall, of _all_ their downfalls.

When she exhaled a shaky breath, Aster looked down forlornly. He saw a tear leak out from her face as she watched the smoke rise from the burning field and the ashes tickle her nostrils.

He frowned and reached down to clutch her hand on his arm gently. Tooth smiled in gratitude and wiped away her tear. The two said nothing for a while before time started to catch up with them.

"Is there anything w-we can do about this?" she wondered about the torched field. "I mean...even though it's Christmas, so-s-someone could come and wonder how it managed to ca-catch fire like this."

"Take a few steps back," Aster mumbled and he let go of her hand. She did what he asked and walked five steps away from him. The green-eyed Australian then went down on one knee. He and Tooth were standing at the very last edge of the snow before it melted away in the thermal heat from below – surely anything that lived in the trees and in the burrows underground were dead.

It made him think about the stuffed rabbits back at the Warren – his little cousin's collected them hoping one day they'd run their own shelter. With a grim frown, Aster looked farther down the field.

He pulled off his glove.

Tooth watched miserably as he moved his bare hand to the hot soil. After touching it a few times to test how hot it was, Aster lowered his fingers into the dirt. Instantly, several cracks in the dirt splintered under his fingertips.

Then with a sigh, Aster shut his eyes...and he pressed his palm flat against the earth. His center awoke immediately.

Like a deep, rolling thunder, the tech analyst and the Hypunjam princess watched all the earth upturn and crumble loudly away from their general area. It spread all the way around the scorched line of the forest in violent fissures, throwing up ash and dry dirt to the sky. Then in a swift wave, Aster forced the cracks toward the centre of the field, controlling their strength and depth. He reached down as far as he could with his gene, trying to imagine the sinkhole he was making drive so deep that it would hit the core of the earth.

Tooth bit her lip as the earth beneath crumbled away and a giant hole was created. In its demolition, it revealed just how far down they'd gone and how large this one sector of the company had been built. The sound of steel crashing against steel – elevators, platforms, the glass and metal deep within – echoed up high until the dirt swallowed it up. It was ready to cave in at Aster's command but before he let the earth shift upwards again, he pulled out his boomerang and with a sharp eye, he flung his most prized gadget into the hole.

"Why'd you do that?!" Tooth gasped. She actually loved that piece of tech, having seen it action – but she knew it wasn't coming back.

"That thing can create a seismic pulse like my gene big enough to destroy whatever else is down there. Hopefully it'll send the eggs to other areas that need caving in...b-but I'm bettin' they're all the same now."

The two then said nothing as Aster finished his work. He also made sure to catch the burnt trees into the hole so no one would suspect arson. When it was over, the entire field was a giant hole refilled with the upturned dirt from below and all signs of a scorched field and forest were gone. If anyone looked, they'd guess an earthquake or an early start to farm plotting had been done.

But that was the end of the company and Project GUARDIAN for good..._What a small victory._

Aster sighed shakily and stumbled getting up.

"You did it," she cheered and helped him up gently. She tried to offer a smile but it came out tight and exhausted. "Y-You okay?"

"Yeah, sheila, I'm fine," he coughed slightly and shot her a trying smile back. "That kind of work takes a lot out of my gene but don't worry."

She nodded and looked at the field again. It looked so different – wider and more alive...and even the snow start to fall again (probably to help cover up their mess, thank god).

Tooth then frowned a little.

"I'll n-never understand how they did it," she mumbled wistfully. "To cr-create a gene that lets you have control over the Earth's elements...and s-superpowers for yourself and against other people. Why didn't they make it for...for themselves?"

"Because they were smart," Aster commented. "They knew the consequences of that and l-look, they got out alive. We didn't."

"But you did," Tooth pointed out. "Y-You're right here." And when Aster blinked at her, she nodded firmly. He glared out onto the field again.

"You're right...and I'm gonna keep holdin' onto this gene because I know it's g-gonna save people."

She nodded back as Aster then motioned for the two of them to head back to the car.

"I'll never understand h-how it works either, princess," he grumbled. "But I've got it, North's got it, Jack's got it and...a-and _you've _got it."

She looked down bitterly as she helped escort him through the thick snow on unsteady feet. He continued.

"But as long we do right by it, th-then ya gotta hope what we're doing with it is for the right reasons...Okay?"

And Tooth nodded. That's when she realised how inspiring Edmund could be. He was so optimistic despite how cynical he usually sounded, and it made her feel better, more comforted.

"A hero h-hidden within," she murmured, "when y-your gifts awaken, and hearts akin."

Aster paused and looked at her wide-eyed. He hadn't heard that been said in so long.

And when she looked up at him, she smiled a genuine smile and he nodded.

"Good on ya."

...

_NY-19 interstate, 2:57 a.m._

The car drove smooth and quiet across the dark, empty road until Aster turned off the NY-19 and headed east on the US-15 intending to find the I-80. He really didn't want to take that route since it was so public, but with Jack's mental state deteriorating, and it being Christmas day, hopefully lesser cars would be on the road – it would cut their travel time by one hour at the most and okay sure, four hours was still a long time, but it counted for something.

Aster and Tooth talked half-heartedly back and forth about anything and everything on their mind to fill the silence – neither wanted to turn on the radio since they didn't feel in the Christmas spirit. Then they hit a large body of water and Aster instantly recognised it. It was Cowanesque Lake and he was suddenly reminded of the reconnaissance mission he once did back as a GUARDIAN. It had been his division's spot to regroup.

"We hit the border so we got less than three hours to go," he called back and Tooth leaned back to the window. The heater was on full blast and it rustled her feathered earrings from overhead. She was still in awe by all the snow and silence of Christmas morning. Aster gave Jack a look through the mirror.

"Jack," he tried again. "We're in Pennsylvania."

Jack sat there, still wide-eyed and seeing a thousand things.

_**"**__Nor_th. Nicholas St. N–You promise?–You gotta listen to me, I didn't kil–Foot pursuit in progress, team! Fo–"

His memories were getting progressively worse and the more he tried to make sense of it, the more jumbled they became.

_**First he'd see a beauty mark on under someone's eye, and then he saw himself running on a treadmill with a heart monitor attached to his chest. Next he'd see Pitch Black's photo in an envelope, Toothiana jumping through a window, then the dead ELF from Belarus–**_

He didn't even sense or hear Aster when the guy called his name. He didn't even know they'd hit his home state, with the wish that his memories would realign themselves in a healthy fashion. He couldn't even _feel _Toothiana's hand on his arm as she sat beside him in the back seat.

And being sweet wasn't working. So Tooth tried bugging him to get him to wake up. She sighed loudly and turned left to face him.

"You know," she tried to grumble. "None of this would've happened if you'd just been _nice _with Edmund and didn't open that window! Then his paper wouldn't have flown out, _I _wouldn't have gone to chase it and we could've avoided this whole thing!" Aster looked at them through the mirror. Jack's face was blank and wide-eyed looking out the front windshield and Tooth looked crazy but she kept babbling. "And you didn't have to be so cavalier and d-disappear on us like that! You know what that kind of scare does to people, _especially _on a freaking countdown?!"

Jack clenched his jaw and her heart fluttered for a second. Did he actually hear her?

_**He was chasing people again. Criminals, Pitch, other agents and ELFs for clues. Then it was Tooth, then it was–"Jack!" And he saw her run into the sunlight and vanish again. He remembered trying so many times running further into the forest after her...**_

He shut his eyes and shook his head – no, he hadn't heard Tooth.

So she frowned deeply. Her tone was so tired and upset.

"But we'll get you out this, th-then you can go back to kicking Pitch's ass like you want to a-and finding Emma, okay?"

"..."

"_Okay?"_

Jack didn't reply.

When Tooth leaned back into the seat, she cringed. Her back was still pretty sore from the impact of the blast Jack had created in the Judgement Room. At least she'd saved him then...she couldn't be sure if she'd be able to save him now.

Aster sighed. Hearing his breath, she looked up and saw him lean over to the glove compartment and pull out two chocolate bars. He handed one to her but she paused to give him a glare – didn't she give him a lecture about candy and teeth earlier?

_"Princess,"_ he said almost tiredly,_ "take it." _And his expression made her stop.

Tooth mumbled a thank you and gratefully reached for it as her stomach started churning. After she broke a piece for herself, she waved the rest of it under Jack's nose. But the brunette still didn't react, so she dropped the bar in her lap and chewed sadly. She then timidly reached over and grasped his ungloved hand.

Tooth didn't want to make it awkward and hoped Aster wouldn't see in the dark but he was perceptive. And here he thought that she'd been afraid of Jack the whole time...

But she didn't let go despite limp and ice cold he was. Several times, she rubbed her thumb over his knuckles thinking he needed warmth or a physical signal that he was still there with them. All it did though was remind her of their dance in Rome...of when he took her hand, so steady and self-assured, and when he'd guided her effortlessly across the party in the Wales hotel.

It tore at her insides and made her feel like her heart was at war.

"Just hang on for three hours, Jack. _Three hours_..." she whispered staring up at his brown hair. She bit her lip – she didn't realise how quick the hair dye was wearing out. But when she looked closer she realised it was because...for the first time since they'd met, he was sweating.

Jack was _actually _sweating.

Somehow he couldn't feel it or control it, but the nape of his neck shimmered as they past under a lonely lamplight outside. Tooth frowned sadly and tried to ignore the light sheen also appearing around his temples. She hoped he'd feel or _do _something to notice her, to notice _anything..._but for the next hour, he didn't move.

He was having a war himself.

For the first time in months, since his wanderlust, since his track down of Pitch, _since meeting Princess Toothiana..._Jack was slowly starting to see and hear bits and pieces of his old life. Places he'd never been before, but they still left him with that nostalgic feeling...voices of people he couldn't put a face to, but the conversations were like recordings he couldn't let go...and events that took place he never thought he'd or _would_ be a part of, but they left some physical sensations across his body that matched the particular thing going on. Jack imagined himself in his own shoes, and then someone else's... he could barely distinguish the two realities.

His mind was deteriorating. Jack never felt so cold, but so alive at the same time...He was still reliving his chase after the little girl...

But then the memories twisted again.

_**"******__N_orth calls it a bleeding effect."

And twisted.

_**"******__J_ust hang on for four hours, Jack. **Four hours**_**..."**_

Until suddenly...what Jack was seeing behind his eyelids wasn't just a vision. He knew it...he knew it felt _real..._

_...When Jack turned his head, he was hallucinating that he was standing in a large forest. It was warm and dark and when he looked up, the moon was twinkling high up in the sky. He spun in a circle, trying to assess his surroundings and the soft grass bent under his boots..._

_'Why am I here?__**' **_ he thought to himself. _'Where's the car and–'_

_Jack rubbed his eye. When he looked around the forest again, he saw glimpses of giant objects hiding behind the trees and bushes...A blurred out photograph with four people...a couple medals hanging on some branches...a giant walkie-talkie leaning up against a rock...an avocado...and a pile of guns next to a maple tree..._

_**"******__I _DON'T WORK FOR PITCH!...BULLCRAP, **JACK FROST! **_**YOU'RE A MONSTER!"**_

The voices kept echoing around the wooded area, and he _still _kept seeing flashes even though he was walking through this...this...

_He rubbed his head. Was he dreaming? Was this some kind of...of broken Wonderland? He didn't get any of it. Jack took a few steps forward, desperately wanting answers and wondering where the _heck_ everybody went – but then his toe hit something. When he looked down, it was the staff North gave him. Jack frowned and picked it up..._

_**"**__I_D code AG-5019...State area code...Level: Proj...Heey! Look, whose back!"

_He gripped the staff tight and breathed softly. It suddenly extended into its full length into a Sheppard's crook and he twirled it easily, trying to relieve his nerves – it didn't work..._

_**"**__M_ine?...You like, huh?...What's with the–the hook facilitates recovery of fallen–and can ensnare their necks or legs...'s a symbol for care, really–Okay, team! Punch it!"

_When he looked up again, he frowned. The moon flickered and in the circle, he saw the recording of TSAR LUNAR. "This..._coded, genetic sequence_ is unique to every individual it bonds with.__ W__e tried many attempts to make this DNA compound universal...But they all failed.__" A second later, the founder of Project GUARDIAN faded away and Jack widened his eyes. "Wait!" he cried, but the moon was just an empty face. He needed to understand what was going on! Why couldn't he remember anything yet? Why did the illusions see through him? _

_"If there's something I'm doing wrong, can...c-can you, can you just tell me what it is?!" he growled. Jack was too busy staring at the moon to realise that the forest behind him was starting to wilt slightly. "Because I've tried _everything_, and the visions, they...no one _ever _sees me!" And in response, an Elf dashed away in the corner of his eye. Jack whirled around to get his attention, but the ELF ignored him so he faced the moon again and clutched his head. "You made me GUARDIAN. Then put me here and you left me...left _us _like this. The least you can do is tell me, tell me why!"_

_But it didn't say a word and ran both his hands through his hair. "Argh!"_

_Then...he heard something._

_Jack spun to this left. He heard a laugh – a dark, throaty laugh..and Pitch was suddenly there. He was sitting on a throne, high up on some stone staircase. The field at his feet was devoid of life and filled with destruction. It was warfare at its best, and Jack panicked. Pitch's lips twisted up into a perturbed smile. "This is my world, Jack," he commanded coyly and Jack's heart actually raced as he took a step back. What was _wrong _with him?! Normally he wasn't afraid of a challenge, of criminals, and he'd already fought Pitch face-to-face, so he wasn't actually scared of the terrorist...except for now. "No...No, get away from me..."_

_Jack's feet backpedaled off the grass path and into the forest, but the farther into the bushel he disappeared, the wider Pitch's smile grew. Several times he saw other Jacks, different appearances, different ages, running with him through the thicket. He was actually scared, _so_ scared until__–_"This way!" a new voice yelled. Jack spun. The voice was young and high, but before he could catch her face, the little girl was already running away deeper into the forest. Her familiar long, brown hair billowed behind her and Jack's heart almost gave out. "Don't leave this time! Please!" he cried but she didn't say another word and kept running...

**_"_**_**Wh-Who is...no how did he –You know how long we've been looking for you?!...But wa...GET DOWN!"**_

_Jack sprinted. He parkoured over trunks, vines, and rocks but no matter how fast and skilled he was, the girl was always faster! He felt like he'd followed her for hours, like the White Rabbit trekking farther into the forest; but she wasn't a rabbit, or Aster at the very most. Eventually, his lungs protested and he couldn't keep up. He stopped to lean on his knees and gasped for air. "W'T!" He tried to yell but she suddenly disappeared, and he was utterly lost. Jack ran a hand through his hair stressfully and tried to recount his steps. But something stopped him..._

_**"A-Are you sure this new procedure is safe?...Don't worry, Jack, it's just a follow–**__**Devi sorgere!...**__**Put your arms around me."**_

_Jack rushed forward. There was a small clearing in the forest. Flowers covered the area and hummingbirds were busy taking nectar from the open night blossoms. His heart caught in his chest. Toothiana and her eight sisters were all scattered around the grass but looked otherwise calm and silent. He sprinted to Tooth since she was the closest, "Tooth!" but frowned when he approached her shorter form. She stood there in a white, summer dress with her arms at her sides, but her eyes were closed like she was asleep. That's when Jack realised, all the other sisters were sleeping-standing-up too..._

**"**_**Not her...You can hurt anyone but–I can't even–INNOCENCE!...Emotional compromise–do you understand now?"**_

_Jack moved in closer to Tooth. Her scent hit him like a wave of spice and flowers. He felt his skin flush as he raised a hand nervously. Would...Would she shoot him again? No...No, that was a nightmare and this was...This was..."Toothiana," he called urgently and didn't even spare a glance back around the forest as he gazed at her in the moonlight – not even at Pitch who was still watching from afar. The forest continued to slowly decay around Jack and the clearing..._

_He raised the back of his hand and brushed his knuckles against her cheek. She was soft and smooth under his touch, and he was desperate for her to wake up. Then her eyes fluttered open slightly. Jack started before he leaned in again. "Tooth!" But he pulled back when something caught his eye. He looked over her head.__ A_ll her sisters were waking up too. They each opened their eyes gently before they all popped – and each transformed into a ball of light. 

_Light. Balls of light. Jack didn't understand...until they all scattered and flew away in fear..._

_**"Everything about her you are protecting...**__**Is a light.**__** People like her. She represents little piece of everything worth fighting for.**__**Especially**__** from danger...from threats like **__**Pitch."**_

_Jack reacted instantly. He snapped his head down at Tooth and watched as her entire body lit up and she turned into a ball of light too. Before she could fly away, Jack rushed forward and closed his hands gently around her. "I've got you, Tooth, don't worry!" he mumbled urgently. "You're s–" But then Pitch appeared and like some horrid show, he somehow managed to find the other sisters. And with a large foot, he stomped on them. Jack's mouth fell open. "No...NO!"_

_One by one, Pitch danced around the clearing, crushing one light under his shoe after the other. "Only six left! Six precious sisters who still believe you can save them." Then he crushed another light. "Make that _five!_" Another. "Ooh, _four!_" His giddiness kept building. "Three..._two..._"Jack panicked and sped away, clutching Tooth's light desperately. He gritted his teeth as the forest grew more decayed. "This way!" the little girl came back and Jack didn't say a word. He followed her deeper into the decay. But Tooth's light tried to protest..._

_**"******__Ja_ck, no! Ignore them–_**Wait you don't underr–Who ARE you? JA–Who am I?"**_

_Tooth's light flashed brightly in his large palms, trying to warn Jack of what would happen if he followed the illusion deeper into the Wonderland, but he wasn't looking down. Jack kept panting, jumping over dead trees and crunching through dry leaves. The air grew thinner and a smell like anaesthesia filled the air. He grew dizzy until _again_, the little girl vanished. Then he was alone with Tooth's blinking light. He started to think he was hurting her...But then the shadows came. One by one, figures melted out from the forest around him shaped like spies, criminals, and at their worst...Pitch's Nightmares. They wanted the light in his hands– _

"Ow, Jack! Stop it, you crazy–St-Stop!_ STOP!_"

...

Aster hit the brakes. He spun in his chair as Toothiana's struggling grew louder.

"W-What's wrong?!"

"H-He–"

She tried to yank her hand from his but the harder she pulled, the tighter he gripped her – and with his strength, Tooth was very well afraid that he'd break her fingers unless he stopped. "H-He won't let go of me!"

She'd been falling asleep for the last twenty minutes with his hand limp in hers. Yet just as she was about to slip into slumber, Jack tightened his fist suddenly and clutched her in an iron grip. Aster touched a button on his touchscreen to stop the car from temporary rolling without having to put the whole vehicle in PARK. He unbuckled his seatbelt immediately and climbed between the two seats to help her.

_Jack spun and when he looked, a Nightmare out of nowhere tried to swoop in from the front. His subconscious fighting skills were ready to kick in though. With a worried frown, he released the ball of light in his hands and pushed it away. "Go, Tooth! GO! I-I'll hold it off!" And he watched as Tooth's little ball of light flew ahead of him. He turned back to the Nightmare coming at him– _

_**"******__J-_Jack!...Haha, Em's such a–HEY, LET HER GO!"

"Jack, ya bloody_–LET HER G–_"

Aster choked as Jack's other hand caught his throat _again_ for the third time that night.

Tooth cried out and tried to shake him sideways. She couldn't very well use a gun in the car, and she couldn't kick him in the balls either!

"Jack, let us go!" Tooth spat and shut her eyes angrily.

"J–Sh-s_h–"_ Aster coughed out and shot the brunette a violent look but it went away instantly when he saw the murderous glare on Jack's face.

_He was out for blood and with two Nightmares in his grip, he could very well have his pick._

Jack started to lift his left arm back, trying to drag Aster forward.

_"J'k!"_ Aster choked. _"St'p't!"_

Tooth opened her eyes.

_"J'k!"_

She took a deep breath. "...JACK!"

He froze. His grip was still tight around Aster's throat but he turned his head in the direction of Toothiana's voice. She gasped again, her eyes pleading.

"Y-You're hurting me! Y-You're hurting _both of us!"_

Her heart ran a mile a minute.

Jack said nothing, his eyes still a stormy blue and muddled with lethality. But his grip loosened the longer he stared at her face. Tooth gulped – was he trying to remember who she was?

_"E-Edmund?"_ she whispered not taking her eyes off Jack's in case he got distracted again. "W-We need to get him to Burgess! Like _now._"

"I know, princ–" Aster stopped when he was able to move out of Jack's hand. He moved slow and fluid so Jack wouldn't sense who he was holding. As he did, Tooth felt Jack loosen his grip on her fingers and she slipped them away from his touch, nice and slow. She blinked once to push down her unshed tears – his behaviour reminded her yet again of her part in all this defragmentation in the first place.

_"Drive,"_ she whispered and Aster looked at her worriedly, wanting to help her still. She sensed his hesitance though and waved her good hand out of Jack's line of vision. "I-I'm okay..." she mumbled. "I'll be okay..."

Aster really didn't want to leave her alone in the back but he knew the problem was much more severe than it could be remedied – Jack seemed to respond to Toothiana so that was only kind of solace they could afford. Plus, if he made Tooth come in the front with him there was no telling what Jack would do to them from behind.

As he settled into the driver's seat again and tightened his grip on the wheel, he looked up at Toothiana through the window mirror.

"I'm right here," he reassured her. "But he tries _anythin'_ again and I'll nerve pinch his pressure point, okay?"

Tooth still couldn't take her eyes off Jack's until he looked away so she licked her dry lips.

_"O-Okay,"_ she answered. She had no clue what kind of nerve pitch or pressure point he was talking about but if it was anything like what they did in ninja movies, then Jack might be paralysed by the end of the ride. When Aster had the car moving again, she shivered under Jack's heavy gaze.

His eyes were like cold, blue steel and they didn't give anything away. They reminded her of the first time they'd met and how such a stranger he was to her...now she couldn't let him go.

"Jack, you're my friend so I'm not quitting on you," she mumbled desperately. "But don't you quit too...Don't lose yourself."

But the farther Jack stumbled into his broken Wonderland, the more worried she became with that last statement.

Jack finally turned his gaze from hers and looked ahead. A painful spasm shot through him suddenly and he clutched at his chest. Tooth looked positively lost for words and finally looked at Aster.

"H-How much time do we have left until we get there?!" Tooth mumbled desperately looking at all of Aster's onboard computers.

"Two more hours at the most," Aster said as he drove a little more carelessly. "So the sun'll be coming up by the time we get there."

"Do...D-Do you think that'll be enough?" she worried and he shook his head.

"Don't know. But just focus on making sure he keeps trying to remember both lives."

"Both lives?" Tooth repeated in confusion.

"Yeah," he urged. "The bleeding effect's leaking into his reality and twistin' his memories, so unless you keep doing what you're doing, he could forget–"

_BOOM!_

Aster didn't get to finish as a loud gunshot shot through the back windshield and Tooth screamed. A dark car was following close behind and when the Aussie looked in the mirror, he realised only _one_ kind of hitman wore black and a yellow visor.

His heart dropped into his stomach.

"GIVE UP THE **TOOTH**! I _KNOW _YOU'VE GOT THE CASE!" the hitman bellowed over the wind and car engines. And Aster looked down at Tooth in the rearview mirror. She shot her hand into her coat pocket – sure enough, she'd forgotten to take it out and leave it at the Warren.

And Tooth nearly cried.

"I-I...I-I'm_ so sorry!"_

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack, take your pick: "Tomorrow" – SR-71 (for Jack) and "Sally's Song"– Amy Lee (for Tooth)

***FYI there isn't a Burgess in Pennsylvania. In real life, there's actually three in the Missouri, South Carolina, and Virginia but for the sake of this story, Aster can't drive that far haha. So here, I'm using an actual a place called 'Jim Thorpe' **_**in**_** Pennsylvania (it's known as the 'Switzerland of America'). I've transformed it into Burgess because Jack's hometown (according some unconfirmed RotG source which I like) was known as a river town helping pioneers dock ferries and ship mining coal – which is what Jim Thorpe is also known for. Plus, it kinda looks like the town in the film where Jamie and kids are from. Check out the pics, it was voted the fourth most beautiful small town in the USA Today Road Rally last year. And haha don't judge, I had fun finding this stuff out :3  
****Oh and terms also disclaimed to the **_**Assassin's Creed**_** series. If you're a fan, then you know what term I'm talking about. (:****  
**


	30. The Game of Wits and Rabbit Tricks

**I wasn't kidding when I said 'end of the weekend'. It's literally twenty to midnight over here haha. Now hang on. It's Bunny's time to shine! **

* * *

_US-15 Interstate, Pennsylvania, 4:06 a.m._

_Bang! Bang!_

"Put your head down!" Aster shouted and Toothiana snapped her neck to her knees, pulling Jack down with her.

_Bang!_

The back windshield was hit again and Tooth yelped when a shard exploded from the glass, cutting her ungloved hand.

"W-What about you?!" she screeched. "You could get hi–"

But Tooth couldn't finish the sentence as Aster turned the wheel sharply and sent the coupé into the other lane. His green eyes were sharp and unblinking as he drove recklessly down the single-lane highway.

Their vehicle zoomed down the empty Interstate whipping past the town of Trout Run like a demon. Pitch's Nightmare followed in a black sports car, like its identical shadow.

They still had about two hours left to make it to–

_Bang! Bang! Bang!_

"Gah!" Tooth gasped and squinted through her eyes. She eyed the trunk camera on Aster's monitor and its rear light lit up the front bummer of the car. Her heart raced painfully as she felt the quiet purr of Aster's car grew louder the more he pressed his boot on the accelerator.

Another chase was about to start.

"_Bullocks!"_ Aster growled. The Nightmare's car was no match in terms of speed when it came to Aston's V12 engine. But that didn't mean the Australian wasn't naive. He tightened his glove on the wheel as he eyed the trunk cam. A car dispatched by a Nightmare would carry all the tricks and gear that Pitch wanted his men to.

But it wasn't like the tech analyst wasn't packed either.

With a dark flicker from his mirrors to the oncoming road ahead, Aster clenched his jaw and pulled off his right glove with his teeth.

"You gonna both be alrigh' back there?!" he called and Tooth lifted her head just the slightest to look at him.

"Yeah!"

"Good," he replied. "'Cause I'm about to go rogue on his ass. _Y'ready?"_

And Tooth looked him directly in the eye through the mirror. She shot him a determined look.

"Whenever you are," she breathed and that was enough for him.

That's when the bullets stopped for a moment as the Nightmare ran out of rounds and paused in his tirade to reload. So taking the opportunity, Aster sent a quick look through the trunk cam and at his blind spot. Then with a snap of both his wrists, Aster twisted the wheel (and the car) back into the lane ahead of the Nightmare.

Tooth then watched him swiftly press his palm flat against the touchscreen closest to him.

Immediately, it light up bright blue, and so did the one next to it, and the one next to it...until all the screens lit up and confirmed his handprint.

_Beeep!_

Suddenly, a clear visor dropped from Aster's overhead compartment. He caught it in his hand and shoved it over his eyes. As he did, two small keyboards slid out under the screen and a program started to run and chime.

"What's–"

_"Initiating ElectronicAlpha Sequence Tracker: Engagement Ready...Priority Level?"_

"Five!" Aster cried.

He then hit floored the accelerator as the screens lights started to dim instantly.

The dashboard dimmed so slow that Tooth could barely make out what they were showing and she looked at his shadowy features in the dark. She thought it was brilliant, knowing that Pitch's Nightmare wouldn't be able to see their silhouettes and get a clear shot through the window. But still–

"How are you going to see the screens?!" she asked worriedly. "Because I can't!"

"With these!" Aster's shadow of his hand lifted up and pointed to the clear visor over his eyes. And sure enough, when he flicked his green eyes down and looked through the clear lens, it reflected the computer screens on some night-vision level that only he could see. The words were bright and clear through the glass.

"My E-lens," he explained. "It can see for me so he can't. Designed it myself! Now hang on!"

When another gunshot went off, he didn't hesitate. Aster threw his fingers on one of the keyboards and typed in a quick command. The touchscreens flickered red for a second before the sequence started, and not even looking, Aster touched three of them simultaneously.

Tooth saw something flicker on the main dashboard, a _CH³__NO²_ – then it disappeared and read '_Nitromethane Boost'._

She gulped.

"Oh sh–"

Aster pressed it.

And his nitro compound sparked in the engine...and sent them rocketing forward!

Aster's back surged tightly back into his driver seat. He grunted under his breath from the light impact – but the same could not be said for the Princess Thia and Jack Frost in the back.

Tooth squealed as she smacked into the backseat. "HOOLYY _CRAAP!"_

The gravity seemed to suck her into the cushion as the few lights outside blinked out faster than she could see – it was Moscow all over again, and that terrified her.

When Tooth caught her breath and tried to help Jack's slightly bent form sit properly, Aster looked up into his rearview mirror.

"Y-You alrigh'?!" he asked her afraid that the pressure from the speed they were going was crushing her lungs or throwing her senses. But as he tried looking for her face, he froze.

He didn't catch her eyes in his mirror – he caught Jack's...and his blue, haunted gaze freaked out the tech analyst. It was so unnerving, seeing how catatonic the normally unyielding brunette was.

Aster shook his head a little and frowned before he focused on the road again. He glared at through his E-lens unblinking and controlled his steering.

"Keep an eye on the bloke in case this ride sets 'im off again!"

Tooth blinked and looked over. "Oh no!"

She reached over and grabbed Jack's shoulder before his head almost hit the window. God know what kind of memory _that_ might've set off!

"Y-You okay?!" she asked him before she realised how incredibly dumb that was. He had no clue what was going on and when another gunshot went off far behind him, she gritted her teeth.

"You can do it, Edmund," she whispered firmly to herself as she saw his fist and his fingers dance wildly across the cars keyboards in the dark.

Jack meanwhile was dazed and confused...but at least he wasn't hurting (or pissing off) the Australian as he drove them from the danger.

_**"******__It'_s Pitch!...Damn, that...t's the sev–Priority level: 6!"

He slurred slightly as he mumbled to himself but Toothiana didn't hear it in the high winds outside, Aster's typing, and the deep purr of the car.

Letting go of Jack, she then heard something go _clunk!_ against the door beside her. When she looked down, the tooth box with Tuhina's clone information inside was thumping against the door like it was trying to get out. She scrambled for it in the dizzying speed of the car and gripped it tightly.

A brief light from outside made the gold shine and she leaned forward slightly, bringing it close to her chin.

"_I'm sorry..."_ she murmured.

When she peeked, Aster's eyes caught hers for a millisecond.

Tooth couldn't help it – her mouth flew open.

"I-I'M SORRY!" She shook her head slightly.

_Bang! Bang!_

A part of the Aston's roof got hit and a violent _pang!_ made her skin crawl.

"I didn't mean...I d-didn't...for _any of–_"

"Princess, it's alright. We're gonna be fine, he ain't gonna catch us."

Suddenly, the first car in miles appeared ahead of them. With the gunshots still going off behind them, he tightened his grip and made a slight turn with his wheel. It sent the Aston in a sharp curve around the truck and back again. Tooth covered her mouth when she thought they'd clip the poor driver.

The speedometer through his E-lens kept ticking higher and higher. Aston Martins could hit 195 km/h in 3.5 seconds but with his calibrations, they were going 245km/h...and higher!

His heartbeat was steady and his fingers were twitching over the keyboard. He then looked at Toothiana again, sending her that calm and reserved gaze that Jack and North seemed to have. She dropped her hands from her mouth as he nodded his head.

"Don't worry. I've got nerves of steel, so you hang in there."

And Tooth nodded as she bit her lip.

He then turned back to the road and did a mental assessment with his head, like a true spy.

Positive: The interstate was dead, not a car or headlight could be seen for miles ahead, which meant he could swing his car into the other lane and have total command of both roads if he wanted.  
Negative: It meant that so could the Nightmare, and from the curved ends and the circular insignia, he was driving a sports car with turbocharged engine...it looked like an Alfa Romeo, maybe Giulietta or a 4C.

That didn't deter him.

_"But please, baby,"_ he grumbled to his car. _"Don't attract cops."_

But with the Nightmare on his ass, that was highly unlikely–

_BOOM!_

The body of the coupé shuddered on Jack's side and a burst of fire lit up the window.

"H-He's–" Tooth's eyebrows shot up like no tomorrow. "H-HE'S GOT A BOMB?!"

Another violent explosion went off.

Aster glared through his clear visor and read the alert heat signatures that lit up on the touchscreen. He swiftly rapped his fingers on the keyboard to watch for any oncoming spikes in temperature. As he looked down through the trunk cam to confirm though, his wild, green eyes something mount on top the hitman's Alfa. It looked like a small rocket launcher.

_"Nope,"_ he growled. "A bloody_ rocket!"_

"What?!"

As he brought both hands to the wheel and felt the Nitro boost start to wane, the dashboard flashed red through his lens.

Aster's subconscious kicked in and he impulsively turned left. The Nightmare let loose three more small rockets.

"Lean back but hide your head!" the Aussie ordered and he performed a quick serpentine effect with the car. It went into the tightest S-shape Tooth thought she'd ever experience.

The three rockets went off like bombs on either side of them. Her skin grew clammy and cold sweat started to form.

"A-Aah!"

Tooth hastily shoved the case into her coat pocket again and clutched both sides of her head. The powerful reverb vibrated the car and the air around them but luckily, none of them hit thanks to Aster's quick dodging. It sent her heart into near cardiac arrest.

"I-I'm gonna die young after all this," she heaved. But hopefully not _too _young – hopefully _after _she got answers about her past, stopped Pitch, finished school, got married, had kids–

The rumbling outside suddenly stopped and she blinked past her stingy eyes. When the fire vanished in the speed and high winds from the outside, Aster eased on the accelerator as a curve in the road came. Snow smacked the windshield but with North's expert inventions, his windshield radiated heat and they melted away before they touched the glass, giving him constant perfect view. But he was still pissed.

"Friggin' showoff," he grumbled and as the ex-spy read out his stats again, Aster gritted his teeth. He reached his ungloved hand over two monitors to hit a smaller touchscreen on the end. When it lit up, he then moved to press the activation button on the one closest to him.

Tooth immediately heard something shift and move under her feet.

"D-Don't tell me _you've_ got a launcher too?!" she exclaimed hopefully but he kept his eyes on the road.

"Sorta!"

A moment later, a sound like metal unlatching from a hook was released.

_Shiink!_

Aster's two 'eggs' flew from beneath a tiny launch pad he had under the body of the Aston. When they bounced on the road leaving the three behind, their grenade hooks disassembled and they clinked in the path of the Alfa. The Nightmare had his own program scanner and smirked under his black hoodie.

Switching gears, the hitman tore up the road faster than Aster anticipated. He must have gotten a recalibrated engine too! Well, that was bullocks. And when the two eggs exploded, they didn't make a scratch on the assassin's car as he outdrove their fire radius.

He sped ahead after the hacker.

"Y'gotta be friggin' kidding me," Aster muttered. With another quick mental boost, Aster pressed the small touchscreen on the far right again.

Tooth didn't know what was happening. It sounded like war! But every time, she tried to lift her head and read the screens, they remained dark and barely readable, except for the occasional red flash indicating something was happening or _coming_ at them. But one thing was certain – as she peeked at the blue-tipped brunette behind the wheel for some kind of clue, she was stunned.

Toothiana's mouth fell slightly open in anticipation.

"Sweet mother of..."

The princess looked on in awe as Aster's eyes went back and forth so quick between the road and his onboard system _whilst_ driving effortlessly one hand _and_ typing simultaneously with the other. He looked completely in his element, mumbling calculations, chemical elements, and algorithms before he pressed and tapped the touchscreen again. It was mind-blowing.

"Suck on this, y'gumbie!"

A heart-stopping second later, the weird _shiick!_ sound under Tooth's feet went off again. That was when she knew _he_ was the one who'd set off the previous wave of bombs – and he was ready and loaded to fire some more.

But Aster glared through his E-lens again and watched his one egg shoot away in the blacklight. He made sure his readouts of Alfa Romeo behind them were correct but he had to be sure this one would work.

This third egg was special.

It's dark, little body bounced and clinked away from the Aston Martin on the icy road until seconds later, the Nightmare's car appeared ahead of it. The second it sensed the vehicle's approaching distance, Aster's egg grenade started to count.

_10 metres...5.2 metres...1.5 metres..._

And just before Pitch's Nightmare whizzed past it, the bouncing egg recognised the car's body makeup, and a magnetic pulse went off inside it. Like a boomerang, it swung back around and tossed itself toward the hitman's car. It chased the carbon fibre and aluminum inside the vehicle and when the magnetic attraction brought it close enough–

_BOOM!_

The back of the Alfa flew up slightly in the magnificent fire causing both Tooth and Aster to pull their heads up. Tooth gasped breathlessly, watching through the trunk cam and the light of the fire. The Alfa buckled slightly on the road behind them and a chunk of its bummer fell off.

"Y-Yeah!" she cheered and Aster didn't waste time. He pressed a button on his E-lens to recall his last Nitro boost and commanded another. When it came up, he looked down with ferocity and hit it again.

The second surge of speed shot them away from the Alfa like a bullet and they flew down the US-15.

"Nice job!" Tooth offered nervously – but like a good spy chase, it wasn't over.

The Nightmare wasn't hurt in the explosion and after he and his vehicle recovered on the road, Pitch's underling tightened his fist and put his foot on the clutch. They weren't getting away with the case _that_ easy. He then aggressively moved into 3rd gear and hit the gas...then he was flying again too, straight for Aster, Jack and the princess.

_Beep! Beep!_

Aster flit his green eyes up to the corner of his lens and read the alert – something _just_ went through a sudden change in speed outside the Aston!

When he looked down at the trunk cam briefly, he clenched his jaw. Even through the Alfa's blacked out windshield, the cam caught a facial recognition of the Nightmare and Aster could see the outline of the bastard's face!

He glared darkly...How in the _hell_ did they find him?!

Pitch's Nightmare was silent behind his wheel, his hunger set for the destruction of the Aston Martin ahead and the burning of everyone inside it. He didn't really give a damn if the car, the guy and the people he was carrying inside it would get totaled. As long he could grab the case in the wreckage, that's all Pitch would want – the box was indestructible, at least that's what Pitch's men told him when he'd been dispatched from HQ.

They'd reported the disturbance at the BNI airport and after he and a small team were sent to check it out, they'd hacked the entire airport's footage and destroyed the data so the police wouldn't get involved with Pitch's operation.

God knows he hated when others joined in his fun without his consent.

Then it was up to him and the team to follow the tall brunette with blue tips. The guy was seen on camera in the taxi responsible for the sinkhole – the cameras did not show Jack or Tooth. And like hunters, they tracked his destination...to an abandoned lot in Buffalo. The three had left by the time they arrived and the trail would've run cold, seeing as the Warren was perfectly designed to counter any scan above and below. But Aster forgot one slipup. Although he erased their earlier footprints, Jack's blood still left a spot in the snow and they used it, searching the DNA to every database they could hack – but Jack always being elusive, never got ID'd and that sent up the Nightmares' red flags.

The rest was easy, really – call in a quick search plane to scour the area in a 500 mile radius, find a tiny sinkhole suspiciously made in a field almost 70 miles south of their location, and...well, they don't get hired by Pitch Black for their sense of style and bloodlust.

The assassin then smirked under his black hoodie.

Whoever this tall clown was, it'd be fun to mess with him.

"Let's see what _else _you've got," he chuckled under his breath and kicked his Alfa into 4th. Then the Nightmare was drilling through the snowy road, shortening the distance between him and Aston's already supped up engine.

...

Both vehicles ripped down the US-15 like hell hounds as they tried to outdrive one another. Eventually the town of Trout Run was nothing but a memory as the dark forests and empty roads engulfed them again. Tooth wanted to grab onto something desperately – or rather some_one_ – but with her only pillow still in possible assassin-mode (and Aster's car going _double_ its speed limit), she didn't want to move.

_'A-At least we're cutting time,' _Tooth huffed as she tightened her coat around her. With the speed they were going, no doubt they'd hit Burgess before sunrise.

Wait, how was _that_ comforting?

_'Just keep your eyes on the road, then! Keep your eyes on the road!'_

But that was easier said than done! With the _Aston Martin_ and their crap-crazy friend behind them taking full command of the two tiny lanes, they were gunning at speeds of over 200 km/h! Every nice bit of scenery or light she could've looked at to help calm her nerves, was like a speck of dust in her eye before it winked away...So _why bother!?_ And surprisingly, that's how the few people who spotted both cars felt.

Of the cars they whizzed past, the truckers they outdrove, and the one service stop they screeched by, no one paid any attention to both cars. The people thought they were just a couple of idiots out just racing before Christmas morning hit and their families caught them. How wonderful.

When both vehicles passed civilization again and were alone on another empty road, the hitman's restlessness started to show. He couldn't believe that with all the Nightmares' upgrades to the Alfa Romeo, it was no match for his 'buddy's' Aston Martin. Sure, the flashy, British supercar was _supposed_ to be naturally fast but with _his_ pumping a new v12 engine too, he should've run it down by now!

He tightened a fist.

Fine then, he decided. He'd have to do a little cat-and-mouse to get his way. The assassin eased on his gas little and lined up behind the black car for a good, clean shot. Then with a flit to his onboard control, Pitch's Nightmare hit a button and gave a voice command.

Two seconds later, four tiny yellow rings shot out from another launch pad under the Alfa's car. They went zooming for Aster's Aston.

...

_Beep! Beep! Beep!_

Aster's eyes widened through his E-lens when a red alert went off. On pure instinct, Aster swerved the car into the oncoming lane and avoided getting hit by the devices.

"Oy!"

His alerts were going off like mad and Tooth yelped as she buckled against the door and Jack's arm. When she opened her mouth to ask what had happened, her eyes widened.

"WATCH OUT FOR TH–" Aster steered violently back into their right lane.

He narrowly clipped the lonely Impala with one headlight that suddenly appeared. It scared the shit of the two of them as Aster tried to control his nerves again.

"Ho!" he gasped. "Bloody _hell!"_

Another alert went off again and when Aster and Tooth both looked at the touchscreens, something tiny and yellow was coming at them from behind.

"Oh no!" Tooth yelled but Aster was already reading out the stats. After he made a quick calculation in his head with their trajectory paths and the length, width, and wheelbase of his car, he gritted his teeth.

"Hang on!" he cried again and shifted gears again.

Aster made another daredevil serpentine to avoid the next set of circles being fired at them. The engine purred loudly and the tires protested against the hard and icy asphalt.

But he'd managed to do it – the yellow circles whizz past.

Tooth caught the yellow light from them fly past the window. She looked around the passenger seat to watch them fly on toward another lonely van ahead in their lane.

"W-What was that thing?!" she cried as Aster moved into the oncoming lane again (this time, with the Nightmare copying and keeping on his tail). He looked down at his monitors.

"Dunno, but I..." he faded out as he lifted a hand to type wildly and bring up another program sequence. Tooth bit her lip.

She felt so upset just sitting there and not being able to help him. Sure, she was doing her part by keeping an eye on Jack so he wouldn't hurt Edmund from behind, and yeah, she wasn't a tech whiz or a high-performance driver – but feeling like a bag of rice in the backseat who screamed alot didn't make her feel better. Tooth was brought out of her thoughts when he spoke again.

"What?" Tooth asked again not hearing.

"It's..." Suddenly, Aster's EA program redirected his front cameras to zoom in on one of the yellow objects still flying ahead (whilst he performed another gutsy serpentine when Pitch's Nightmare tried to shoot a bullet at their tires again – he kept missing).

When the cam caught the object, its lens zoomed in on it immediately and gave Aster a clear shot of what it was. It was a _ring! _A ring that pulsated yellow. Then when it hit the van ahead and stuck itself onto the side of the vehicle, it blinked several times and turned black. He scrunched his eyes through his visor.

It looked dead, virtually invisible...but Aster knew.

"Bullocks!" he cursed. "It's a tracker!"

And he looked in all his cameras knowing the hitman wouldn't stop shooting them until he'd hit the Aston Martin with one.

"He's trying to tag you?!" Tooth choked worriedly but it made sense. Even if they _did_ manage to escape this hunt alive, the tracker would follow them back to Burgess – and who knew what horrors Pitch would bring to Jack's hometown if they went all the way?

It was too much and her heart twisted on itself under her turtleneck.

"C-Can you stop it?"

And like a breath of hope, Aster narrowed his eyes through his E-lens.

"I can do him one better!" he growled, ready for the challenge. The Aussie genius then typed furiously on his keyboard as his car nearly sideswiped the van with the tracker on it. Just as they passed it, Aster's quick fingers initiated a scanner on the right side of the car to scan the tracker for its carbon particles.

Like a camera flash, it got a reading of the tracker at the last second.

_Beep! _

As Aster got the results of the rings on screen he accepted them and his mind worked furiously.

His eyes darted everywhere and both his hands were violently quick. Tooth couldn't keep up as she tried to follow his fingers in the dim light of the car and knocked into the sides as he twisted through both lanes aggressively.

When her head hit the glass window, she rubbed it painfully. "Son of a– "

Then–

"Got it!"

Tooth looked up and saw Aster's green eyes narrowed through the windshield.

"Alrigh', ya bugger, come on!" he dared the Nightmare. _"Try it again!"_

"What?!"

And just as he said so, Pitch's assassin lined up behind Aster and he glared through his yellow visor. He mimicked the Aston Martin's movements and locked onto it properly – this time, he'd get him because the guy was running out of tricks and it was easy to predict his next moves. He wasn't that skilled in street racing.

But that wasn't Aster's downfall...

(And when Pitch's Nightmare fired another set of tracker rings, hell _bent_ and red-hot determined on nailing him this time, the hacker smirked.)

...because his skill was in _tactics._

The yellow rings soared through the icy wind and hoarfrost like bullets. Their trajectory was so spot on and inevitable, that even Tooth saw the monitor beep more than once in alert. She panicked and bit her lip, and in her blind fear, she reached for Jack's hand, completely forgetting how dangerous he still was.

Within two metres of the car, the trackers pulsed wildly and Tooth's mouth opened to yell out...but then Aster's program initiated a chemical sequence through the hydraulics – and a deep vibration started from the front of the Aston's engine and swiftly surged to the back.

The surge instantly pinpointed the carbon particles inside the rings coming straight for them, and let off a shockwave that the countered the active compound inside them. The shockwave was so strong, it zipped through the air like a blue flicker...but it sent _all _five tracker rings flying other directions.

The Nightmare was stunned and horridly pissed by what had happened. But so long as all the rings were made of the same carbon-base, _none _of them could touch the Aston after.

When a dead tracker ring bounced off his windshield and made a tiny crack, he growled angrily – this guy just outsmarted _state-of-the-art_ Nightmare technology. Who the _hell_ was he?!

Tooth choked slightly before a smile pulled at her lips. Before she knew it, she was leaning up a little higher than before and clapped like a ten-year-old.

"Y-You...Oh my god! That was amazing!" she applauded. "You stopped him!"

She knew she looked sorta ridiculous trying to be his cheerleader, but for Tooth it was better than nothing. She couldn't do crap but god knew she didn't just want to sit around and let him suffer in silence.

"You gotta tell me how you did that!"

And Aster smiled a little as he flicked his eyes up to the rearview to see her.

"Well, it–"

_**Vrrrrrrmmm!**_

He dropped his head back to the dashboard. From his outside scanners, Aster saw the speedometer readings of the Alfa behind him suddenly spike. He gritted his teeth – he didn't realise he'd been distracted by the princess and nearly lost all his acceleration. They'd been slowing down!

"Son of a–"

_BOOM!_

"Gah!"

Tooth was flung sideways. She smacked her chin into Jack's shoulder while Aster used his side cam to see what'd just happened.

The Nightmare had caught up. He rammed them violently from the back corner before he floored it and tried to steer Aster's car off-course.

Tooth recognised the motions instantly – It was another damn PIT maneuver.

"Oh, _hell no_, mate!" Aster griped and he aggressively veered out of the hitman's control and moved into the other lane again.

Tooth rubbed her chin and looked sideways to catch the dark Nightmare car. It was on her side, speeding up to get them again, and reminded her horribly of Moscow when the _Militsya_ tried to throw Jack into a PIT too. Luckily he was skilled in getting out of one...she couldn't say the same if Edmund was trained to as well.

"You can do it!" she cried and shut her eyes.

Aster downshifted until the car was straight again. It was so hair-raising, feeling the dirt from the and thick ice chunks bounce under their vehicle but he was watched his blind spots and windows meticulously. Then when they were fine again, Aster shifted up to 3rd again and floored. But the Nightmare mimicked and soon, the two were trying to outgun each other down the interstate again.

"Oh, not again!" Tooth wailed.

"Just hang on!"

The two black cars raced and pulled swerves Tooth thought she'd never feel sick for unless Jack was driving – until eventually, the lonely interstate transformed into the Westbranch Highway and they pierced through a quiet town. Tooth had only a second to catch its sign under the lamplight. Was it Burgess?

_'Welcome to Milton_.'

Crap, nope.

Their deep engines across the sleeping roads made loud rumbles bounce off nearby buildings and it was all Aster could do not to get carried away and take over all the lanes. But he _was_ making it very hard for the Alfa to stay on his toes...

...too bad their straight road was coming to an end.

Aster glared through all his mirrors and cameras before he caught a sign up ahead in the distance. With a quick key command to his computer, he zoomed in on it.

_'Next ramp ahead, I-80 to Bloomsburg, 16.8 miles.'_

He felt his heart race. That was it!

Aster _needed_ to take that ramp! If he could make that sharp turn up and around on the ramp, the US-15 would end and they'd on the I-80 heading east – and that was the only quickest way to get to Burgess at this point!

"Buckle up, princess!" He cried just as they were within metres of the ramp and before she say a word, Aster downshifted swiftly.

Time stood still for a second as her heart leapt into her throat. Then...Aster's grasped the steel from underneath and turned it sharply with a stiff grip.

The Aston made a drift up and around the empty ramp, avoiding the black ice and surprise cars that would appear ahead and kill them in a big explosion.

"Ohhh, nellie!" Aster smirked and let out a slightly whoop. He hated twists and turns – they always made him sick – but the adrenaline in his veins and the energy from his gene pumped loudly under his skin.

Tooth wasn't having as much fun. She leaned heavily to the right and ended up using Jack as an airbag.

"Oof!" She coughed when his thick skull and soft hair smacked her in the throat. "S-Sorry, Jack!" she cried on behalf of both her and Aster.

When the ramp ended, Aster got out of the curve and shifted up into 2nd, then into_ 3__rd_, and left the US-15 behind and tore down the I-80 towards Bloomsburg.

"Only a couple more miles till we hit the PA-93! That'll take us down directly to Burgess, Thia!" he cried and as Tooth helped Jack settle upright again, she grinned breathlessly.

"But what about him?!" She jerked a thumb out the window. Since they were in a town, the orange glow from the streetlamps outside lit up the entire street – and the Nightmare's Alfa stuck out like a bat in orange juice once it came up the ramp too.

As they both heard Aster's computer alert a change in speed, the Nightmare's black car tried to gain ground on them again. When he did, both cars were almost neck-in-neck again, until Aster actually shook his head pitifully.

Tooth looked at him expectantly.

"W-What?"

"Ya just think he'd learn by now!" Aster joked and when the Alfa somehow almost lined up with the Aston, the Australian smirked through his tinted window. He chuckled darkly, thinking about the poor Nightmare trying to out chase a GUARDIAN.

"Heh, you don't wanna race this rabbit, mate!"

And with a violent oversteer, Aster rammed the body of the Aston into the Alfa's side. He then pulled away swiftly and after shifting up to 4th their black coupé sped further on ahead.

Tooth didn't understand the motive until Aster moved their car in line with the recovering Alfa from behind. Then after locking onto it with his trunk cam, the Aussie pressed a button on his touchscreen blindly and a wave of what looked like salt, shot out from under the Aston's bumper.

The princess watched in stunned silence as the salt pellets bounced toward the Alfa under the lamplights and mixed in with snow on the ground. But the second they hit the cold, each spread and flourished like wildfire. Her eyes widened.

Was it...She couldn't help but look over at Jack...Were those salt pellets...making _frost?_

As she watched through the camera more, the salt spread under the Nightmare's car. It reminded her so much of Jack's unknown ability to–

"It's liquid nitrogen!" Aster explained since he expected her silence to be out of confusion. "Drops below -210°C and will freeze then shatter anything it catches onto!"

And she watched in understanding as the flourishing salt-and-ice caught on to the Alfa's tires a bit and spread. It locked the front ones slightly but with the Alfa's thick tires spinning so fast and burning, it only stiffened its control. Pitch's Nightmare was in a daze – what was happening _now_?!

As he let go of the gas and aggressively tried to twist the tires out of their sudden restraint, he swerved a little and Aster smirked.

"Told ya, mate," he growled and after he lined up his car again with the Alfa, Aster lifted his fingers and touched a command on the screen. A second later, a bright light flashed from the back of the Aston and blinded the Nightmare through his visor.

In his impaired sight, the hitman sent his Alfa Romeo completely off the road and into the other lane, giving them a boosted headstart.

"Yeah!" Tooth cheered and even Aster sighed. As he rubbed his head, Tooth smiled up at him admirably.

She realised then that sure, Edmund may not drive high-performance like Jack but the ingenuity he'd made in his own car to suit his own strengths _completely_ made up for it. Aster was a tech _and tactics_ specialist.

She then leaned up slightly over the two seats.

"What else you got?" she asked in an impressed, light tone. Aster smirked, ready to open his mouth, when he eyed her more clearly and nearly jumped in his seat.

"SHEILA!"

Tooth panicked and jerked away.

_"W-WHAT?!"_ She twisted her head around. Was he coming back?! Did Jack–

"Where's your bloody seatbelt?!"

She dropped her mouth flabbergasted. "Wh–"

"Ugh, bugger it!"

He then ignored her briefly as he realised they were leaving Milton and heading eastbound through the lonely highway of the I-80 again.

"He's gonna come back, so we _need_ to take a more secluded route and lose 'im!" Aster muttered. "Otherwise we'll never get Jack home."And Tooth could automatically tell somehow that he was starting up a GPS as he started to press buttons on his touchscreen.

He searched the dimly lit monitors with his E-lens and picked out secret roads off the interstate. When he found one, Aster made a sharp turn and twisted the Aston Martin into a dark, sharp slope.

The thicket was rough and the snow was crunchy under their tires but thankfully it wasn't high. Tooth gasped every time the bumps in the road made her jump in her seat.

"C-Can you still see?!" she cried and Aster nodded his head even though she couldn't see it.

"Yeah!" he acknowledged. "I'm relying on the GPS and my program's ability to measure the distance ahead and under us. So don' worry! We won't fall into some hidden ravine or anythin'!"

"O-Okay, aw-awesome!" but when a deep pothole hidden in the show made the entire coupé bounce up violently, she still squealed and her attention was completely focused on keeping herself together.

Unlike Jack.

His head lobbed with theirs as the car drove violently through the dirt road on a mad dash for the next and final interstate to Burgess. But his mind was still warped and his memories were still attacking him.

_**"******__K_eep going! KEEP G–You don't think, I don't know? Hmm! Do you?!"

Then suddenly–

_Bang!_

Tooth missed Jack take a pretty bad hit against the window on his left. And the last memory that was leaving him came flooding back, turning his Wonderland more violent...

_**"Wake up, eh? Wake up!"**_

_**Jack tried to blink steadily and keep his eyes clear, but when he looked away defiantly, the crime boss smacked his cheek gently with the back of his hand. Jack had to force himself to look him directly in the eye. His glare was dark but his face was still caked with dirt and bruises, and his split lip turned his expression more sour.**_

_**"You care to explain, son?" the man with the heavy accent breathed onto Jack's face. Jack's bangs were pushed in all directions showcasing the sharp blow he got to his head. The other dirty, greasy men around the room looked at the two of them blankly.**_

_**"You care to tell my men how you sign on six weeks ago, become my BEST facilitator, then suddenly under your watch, $20 million dollars just vanishes from our funds?!"**_

_**Jack said nothing. His eyes were cold and calculating and even as he sat in the chair with his wrists bound behind him, he exuded more boldness than the men had seen in weeks.**_

_**"You snuck it out. You undercover dogs!" the crime boss growled. "You play cop and criminal so well. Maybe **_**you're**_** really the worst of both us, hm?"**_

_**And when he got up and walked around the chair, a **_**shiick**_** went off and Jack felt the sharp point of a knife get shoved against his torso.**_

_**"Will you yield?"**_

_**And Jack narrowed his eyes when he saw the fresh blood still drying on it–b**__**ut he didn't say a word.**_

_**"Well then fine," the leader taunted as he looked at Jack through the mirror across the room. "Let's use the same knife on you that I used on your partners until you do."**_

_**A second later, the blade drove deep into his skin.**_

_**"H...A-Argh!"**_

"Get ready, Thia!" Aster called as he pressed some programs on his computer he needed in case shit went down again. "I think the road is coming to an end!"

"I'm ready!"

And a second later, Aster followed the GPS and turned sharply up a short incline from the dirt path. They landed on the interstate again, half a mile from where they'd secretly driven into when–

_BAM!_

Tooth gasped and Aster turned his head sharply to the left. The Nightmare had come back. Having recovered from Aster's nitrogen trick, he sped after them but lost sight instantly. Still, he didn't give up – Operation: Nightmare needed that case! So he kept driving ahead remembering that even though they vanished into the darkness, they'd always appear – Pitch taught them that.

He also taught them that gruesome deaths were completely acceptable in the line of work – and as he rolled down the Alfa's passenger window and produced a gun, he held on tightly to that advice.

Aster's brows flew up and at the last second, he threw his seat back and grabbed the wheel.

"DUCK!" he shouted and Tooth pulled Jack down instinctively. The three narrowly missed getting shot in the face as they covered their ears. The glass in Aster's window shattered completely. He gritted his teeth as drove from under, using the cameras on the monitors to see where they were going.

Nightmares were such a pain in the _ass._

"I've had enough," he muttered and with a quick grab, Aster pulled out a medium-sized assault rifle he had wedged in between his driver seat and the door. As he leant back and avoided the bullets, he eyed the bullet holes in the window and frowned.

_"Sorry baby,"_ he mumbled and clenched jaw. Then he quickly let go of both hands on the wheel and for a split second, Aster loaded the semi-automatic firearm with a cartridge. And with a poised aim against the glass, Aster pulled the trigger and fired through his own car's window back at the Nightmare. Tooth was astonished.

The sound of the bullets shattering the glass and hitting the metal body of the car beside them made their skin bristle with anxiety.

The assassin instantly let up on his gas to avoid getting hit, giving Aster much needed recovery time to pull his seat back up and sped ahead of the Alfa Romeo.

"_Argh!"_ Aster used a powerful elbow strike to punch out the broken glass. The icy wind immediately stole the air and warmth from their lungs and lips and Tooth tried to push her hair away from her face.

As she did though, Aster was unbuckling his seatbelt.

"What're you doing?!" she cried as she was still bent over. This was insane! Any minute now the gunshots would start again – Aster shouldn't be leaning up again or he'd–

"I need to jump over and stop him!" Aster cried as he pressed a cruise control and speed changer on his touchscreen so the car would continue to keep going.

"What?!" she panicked as she pulled up to look at him.

The wind threw his short hair into a violent shake and the snow was already turning his cheeks raw red and his breath icy.

"It's the only way or he'll never let up, princess!"

And Tooth's mouth fell open – Is this how all agents, no, all GUARDIANs were?! Jumping cars and beating people up?!

"No, you big idiot! Stay here, we'll find a way to–"

"Princess, he won't stop unless I take an offensive. So it's now or never!"

And when he looked back at her with a heated gaze, she nearly choked again. She hoped nothing would happen as she saw him grip his rifle in his left hand.

"O-Okay...Okay _fine!"_ she sighed angrily.

Aster nodded. "I need you to line me up with him since cruise control won't do that. Can you?!"

And Tooth surprised herself when she nodded determinedly and didn't hesitate to squeeze quickly through the seats to sit in the driver's chair. She suddenly felt more confident and brave, having been in the situation before and knew how to react.

Aster climbed and perched himself on the broken window as she leaned around him to see ahead. He ripped off his E-lens and handed it to her. When Tooth shoved it on, her eyes bugged out of her sockets.

_"W-Whoa!_ Holy–"

The onboard computer system was so _bright!_ Everything she couldn't read in the dark before were right there on the monitors through the lens.

It was breathtaking, but she didn't have time to gawk.

"Be careful!" she cried.

Then after letting up on the gas and lining up with the Alfa, Aster fired the first shot to distract the Nightmare and jumped across to swoop into the Alfa's open window, catching the hitman completely by surprise.

Tooth heard gunshots go off twice before they stopped, but loud grunts kept sounding which meant the fight was still on. So she tried to calm herself. Maybe they'd both lost theirs in the fight and were resorting to fists. She puffed her cheeks and gripped the wheel. As she drove in neck with the Alfa, Tooth was hard and focused. She sat, ready to swerve out of the way should anything (or the Alfa) get to close, and ready to catch Aster when he came back.

But she gritted her teeth, the longer he took.

"_Argh!...Y-Gwargh!"_

Tooth was pissed.

Pitch and his men were just the gum under all their shoes that would never give up. They were vile and cruel and...she dropped her right hand and put it against her thigh, brushing her fingers against her gun holster under her skirt.

Tooth couldn't deny it. She wanted to help Aster by pulling out her Taurus and firing a couple shots – he needed it since it sounded like they were now fist-fighting and her bullet would help give them the advantage. But she frowned and shook her head.

'_No, Tooth! No! You only have one working gun left with five rounds still inside it...If you use it, then you can't get anymore!'_

She needed to save it. Aster seemed fine so far, and she wouldn't use Jack's rifle either, even though it was still sitting in the passenger seat where she left it earlier. Suddenly–

_**Bang! Jack kept running–Bang! Bang! Tooth's light hadn't come back yet and while he was desperate to find her, he knew he had to keep the Nightmare from getting to her. It didn't help though that the memories got him punched in the stomach at least one or twice.**_

_**"******__D_on't leave anybody to fend for themsel– _**Levez-vous! LEVEZ-VO–le gusta la gasolina...Dame más gasoli–What?!–You...understand, then?"**_

Tooth caught movement in the rearview mirror and raised her eyebrows. She thought maybe the Nightmare had skidded behind her but–

Jack's hand flew up to his bangs and pressed against his head. When he growled under his breath, her heart raced painfully.

"Jack?!" she called but he only made her stress rise when his head jerked slightly. She gripped the wheel but raised her other hand.

"No! _No_, stop it!" she cried angrily and pointed at him through the rearview mirror. "You stop it! You hear me, mister?!"

Her voice was high and shrill like a nagging mom or a cranky girl but she didn't stop. Tooth quickly eyed him again and saw his twitch get worse.

_**"******__Ja_ck! You gotta teach me how to shoo–TIANAAA!–Let's play a game...Ah know ye like games, Jack."

"_Argh!"_ He leaned forward slightly and Tooth reacted by looking sideways.

She caught his staff and rifle still lying next to her. With a quick glare, she reached over and threw them both on the floor so he couldn't see them in the dark and go for them. When they were virtually invisible, she glared up at him through the mirror again, balling her hand into a fist.

"I've had just about enough of you and your crazy Jason Bourne act, Jack!" and she swept her hand out stressfully to emphasize just how _enough_ she was fed up with him. "And if you try _anything _right now, I swear I'll–"

In her blind yapping, her hand swept over the sensitive touchscreen. Tooth's eyes grew wide past the clear visor and tried to read what she'd just done.

"Oh son of a–"

_Shiick!_

A second later, a shelf under the glove compartment slid out and Tooth gasped. There was a silencer there, an emergency gun Aster kept hidden! She didn't blink.

Reaching over quickly, Tooth grasped the cold steel and looked at it briefly as she drove. With a dark frown, she clicked off the safety. She then turned back to the Alfa beside her. This was her one shot.

Easing on the gas and lining up the coupé with the Nightmare's car, Tooth blindly set the gun against the window ledge as she drove looking ahead. She needed to make sure she wouldn't crash or anything when she turned her head and fired. But it was all so nerve-wracking.

She still felt sick to her core and thought that every time she held a gun again, a piece of her soul shredded away. And all those men she'd...and the blood on her hands? Even though she'd never seen their faces still it–

She gritted her teeth. No, they were...they were...bad. And she could pretend...she could _just pretend_ until the day her heart stopped aching.

So Tooth waited, skin electrifying and heart thumping wildly. And when she thought she got a clear line, she narrowed her eyes.

_'Now!'_

She then hoisted the gun over the window ready to fire. Then with a finger on the trigger, she snapped her head to the left and–

She froze.

Aster was looking at her wide-eyed from the other car, his short dark hair moving wildly about and his mouth was open. He looked like he was panicking.

And that's when she realised...he was the only one in the car.

_CRACK! CRACK!_

Tooth turned right just in time to see the passenger side's window get pierced with two knives. Then in one violent tug, the entire glass ripped away. More wind flowed through both open windows and made Tooth's lungs shudder with an icy chill.

He was on the roof. He was on the _freaking_ roof!

Tooth instantly reacted and floored the accelerator, performing her best swerving technique the minute she eased off the pedal. Her heart pounded loudly in her ears that she almost didn't hear Pitch's Nightmare bounce around on top the Aston. With wide, cerise eyes she looked up at the closed sunroof.

Did it work? But a second later–

The hitman leaned over on her driver's window and ripped the silencer rifle from where she was poising it with her right hand. Tooth cried out painfully as she twisted her wrist in trying to yank it back – but his grip was far stronger than hers and with a guttural yell, the assasin tore it from her hold and tossed it away.

Tooth faintly heard it clank and vanish onto the dark road behind the two cars.

"Dammit!" she screamed and suddenly her control on the wheel started to slip.

"What th–_Oh no!"_

Tooth gritted her teeth. Looking through the E-lens, she eyed the road ahead of the car through the monitor and saw an alert...there was black ice on the road!

The wheels of the Aston started to slip on the icy concrete and Toothiana feared that she'd locked up the tires if she kept trying to control it. With a dry throat and wet eyes, she remembered Mr. Ty's advice.

* * *

_"Careful with the ice, Toothie...Don't touch the gas, ease off the brake!_

_"W-Why?"_

_"Because you'll lock up the tires...Let the car slide on its own. When you think the ice is gone THEN you can hit the gas."_

* * *

"Do it, Tooth," she murmured and she geared herself up as the black ice continued to show.

With a deep breath to ease her tempest heart, she let her boot off the gas, cringing as the coupé started to slow down immensely. The second she did though, the car was easier to maneuver and she bravely moved away from the ice into the other lane.

That's when she realised where she was driving – and her mouth started moving on its own.

"H-Holy crap, I'm breaking the law!" Well, there was one for her bucket list.

But she was safe! Thank god! And the monitor scans showed no more ice on the road ahead! And the Nightmare wasn't making any sounds on top so maybe he'd fallen over!

She huffed. Good, now she could speed ahead and get back to Aster before he needed to jump out. She hit the gas and tore off! As the Aston flew impressively, she leaned forward in awe by how awesome it was.

_'Another note to self,' _she told herself. _'Drive another one of these in the future. Heck, BUY one!'_ Suddenly–

_Fwoomp!_

Something black engulfed the space on her right and when Tooth turned her head, her heart nearly stopped.

The Nightmare didn't hesitate and after perching himself on the passenger seat, he went after Tooth. She screeched under her breath and tried to fight him off with one (sometimes two) hands.

Every time his hands reached for her, she knocked it away and when he grabbed her, she'd swerve the car to throw him sideways on his squat. It was the weirdest but the most terrifying thing she'd ever gone through – but at least, he didn't have a weapon, he just kept trying to use his hands.

The Nightmare growled viciously and kept trying to reach for the driver. When the Australian tried to pounce him in the Alfa, the two fought brutally. But the Nightmare was quick to realise that the guy wouldn't have sacrificed himself to come over if he didn't have the case – which meant it was still in the Aston Martin with _whoever_ was driving it.

The Nightmare glared through his visor. He already couldn't properly see through his yellow visor in the dark, but the Aston was near pitch black inside so he couldn't see the person's face. How the hell did they drive and manage to evade him like this?!

The thought fuelled his anger and made him reach for Tooth harder.

"NO!" she yelled angrily. "G-Get _away!"_

_**"****G-Get away!"**_

The Nightmare faltered for a millisecond – so it was a woman?

He gritted his teeth. No way, this would be too easy, especially since she sounded so afraid.

He reached for her sides with more violation, grabbing at whatever he could when she couldn't block him or knock him away. Tooth cried out and swerved the car more violently, begging some unknown grace that he'd fly out or smack his head against the windshield.

He suddenly grabbed her shoulder and Tooth didn't have time to react when he punched her cheek. Her eyes blurred from the light impact and she rolled in her lips – only one thing to do, hit the brakes and hope for the–but then he forcefully grabbed one side of her head and pulled her.

Tooth's hair pulled at her roots and she yelled out. "NO!"

_**"******__N_O!"

And she felt more than saw his large glove hand rise to get in a perfect hit.

She shut her eyes.

Then he threw hand down–and Jack's hand shot out of nowhere and grabbed him by the throat.

The Nightmare growled off-guard and turned his eyes under his hood. His mouth fell open in Jack's death grip, his breath laboring. There was another guy?! But how could he have known, it'd been so freaking dark in–

Pitch's hitman immediately used his other hand and tried to rip Jack's leather glove from his trachea. But nothing worked – the blue-eyed brunette didn't say a word. His eyes were wide and clouded with such a cold, and his jaw was still slightly slackened...

...but only because he couldn't really _see_ that the Nightmare was there.

Jack was still wandering through the forest in his head, still suffering from his paranoia and the bleeding effect. But Tooth's screams were so vivid and his heart raced suddenly under his chest that he couldn't control it. He'd sensed the real danger all the same and in his subconscious, he reached out and caught it – right around the throat.

_**"******__D_on't you touch her!" he threatened at the approaching Nightmares and the trees stopped decaying around him for a moment.

Jack's grip tightened beyond what normal men could attempt, and the wind through the broken windows started to pick up violently.

Tooth opened her eyes – she knew instantly who was awake. But he couldn't move forward because his seatbelt restricted him.

"H-Hang on, Jack!"

With an angry cry and a heart pumping with adrenaline, she shoved the Nightmare's glove off her and looked down. Through her E-lens, she eyed the touchscreens fervently and spotted a command control that just might give them an advantage.

Reaching down quickly, she pressed _'Seatbelt Override'_ and Jack was instantly unbuckled from the backseat. He rushed forward with the Nightmare still in his hold.

Jack's eyes hardened as he leaned and over through the two front seats and extended his arm. The more force he pressed on the assassin, the more the guy kept leaning down and back towards the window. Jack's strength was incredible and as he dragged him more toward the open window, the winds grew more blustery. Tooth drove the Aston until the forest melted away and revealed another small, snowy field.

The Nightmare didn't want to go down without a fight but a second later–Aster's hands shot in from above the car and grabbed the Nightmare by the shoulders. Jack shoved the hitman up the rest of the way and with his help, the Aussie was able to haul the hitman's choking butt out of the window. With a powerful toss of his long arms, the tall brunette flung him into the passing snow.

Aster watched from his steady perch on the roof as the Nightmare rolled down a small hill into the field while Tooth watched the Alfa from the trunk cam. It slowed and swerved on its own without a driver, then it drove itself into the field a couple metres away from the collapsed assassin.

"Hah!" Tooth cheered under her shaky breath. As she gripped the wheel and blinked her wide pink eyes, she looked all around, trying to take hold of the situation.

"I can't believe we did it..." she mumbled as Aster swooped in back through the broken passenger window and settled into the seat. Then her cheer was loud. "I can't believe we DID IT!"

Aster wiped snow from his coat and hair as he tried to regulate his heartbeat again. Jack pulled his hand away and eased himself completely into the backseat to do nothing. He sensed the immediate distress was gone and reverted back to his fish-phase.

As Tooth calmed down instantly and looked through Aster's E-lens for any more black ice, Aster threw her another heated look.

"Let's get the hell out of here!" he screamed and Tooth was ready to floor it. Just one more pat on the case in her coat pocket then she'd–

Her fingers shook.

"W-Wha–No, i–Oh my god, _NO!"_

"What?!" the Australian shouted. _"WHAT?!"_

"THE CASE IS GONE!" she screamed.

And on blind instinct and vague memory, Tooth grabbed the gear shift and moved it violently down to 1st and made the Aston perform a twist. Aster was flung hard against his door and Jack's body fell to the right but Tooth didn't give a crap – Tuhina was all that mattered to her for the moment.

When the Aston Martin was facing the opposite direction of the interstate again, she gunned it up into 3rd and rushed down the road. Aster could only lift his eyebrows as she went off the road and drove down the small slope into the field. The silhouette of Nightmare already hobbling back to his Alfa was vaguely lit up by the sky. They could only see him from the white snow.

Tooth hit the brakes and the second she said, Aster jumped out of the car, ready to run. By the time she closed her door and went around to join him, the Nightmare already made it back to his Alfa. They saw his car door open before he vanished inside it and Aster lifted his ungloved hand, ready to throw his palm to the earth and create a fissure towards the car– but then the Nightmare reappeared.

He had a gas mask with glowing yellow goggles on under his hood. Aster instantly panicked and grabbed Tooth's arm with his glove as he skidded to a halt.

"NO, HE'S GOT A–"

And Pitch's hitman hit a button was holding.

_Beeeep!_

A second later, the back of the Alfa Romeo shuddered and the same heavy, black smoke that was used in Moscow spewed onto the snow. The two froze in fear.

As the gas particles started to duplicate and build behind him in the swirling wind, Pitch's Nightmare laughed darkly. He waved Tuhina's gold tooth box in the air.

"Four clones down!" he yelled evilly as he moved back to the car door. "And after I deliver this, only THREE left to go!"

"NOOO!" Tooth's throaty, horrified scream left her lips before she could even think. She tried to run again but Aster pulled her back. "Princess, no! The smoke!"

Suddenly the Nightmare put up his hand at him.

"Oh no, wait!

Tooth and Aster paused in fear, watching him freeze for a second, and watching the viral smoke continue to grow in the background. When he put his glove to his where his ear was, they realised he was getting a call on some hidden Bluetooth.

But then he laughed and moved again.

"Hah!" he cried back at them and twirled the case in his hand. "Make that TWO now!"

And before Aster could react and Tooth could scream again, he moved quickly back into the black Alfa Romeo and reversed into the smoke. They watched helplessly until the eerie yellow lights from his goggles and his headlights faded into the black.

And they knew that was the end of that...They knew they could do _nothing_ and go after him into that smoke. If they did, Tooth knew the boys would inhale it and succumb to blood poisoning like it did for Jack and North.

* * *

_"New invention of Pitch...His airborne pathogens weaken substrates, enter bloodstream. Designed to send body into shock then later infection."_

* * *

And without Jack's help, they couldn't push the wind away.

"C-Come on..." Aster mumbled and reached for Toothiana's arm. When she didn't move and her eyebrows scrunched together like she wanted to argue, he tugged a little more forcefully. "Come on, princess! We gotta go before it catches up to us!"

Tooth finally turned on wobbly feet and numb senses as she gasped in short breaths. The stitch of pain in her side came back as she and Aster dashed for the car again to get away from the smoke – but the wind was slowly turning it their way.

When they reached their car, Tooth threw Aster his E-lens and the two immediately switched seats. As they shut their doors and the wind carried the smoke their way, Aster pulled on both gloves, shifted gears and floored it. The tires whirled and shot them forward until the Aston drove itself up out of the field and down the road again.

Neither said a word as he drove like a madman east on the interstate away to where they'd be safe. Only the loud wind from the broken windows and their short gasps for air could be heard until Tooth finally gritted her teeth.

Aster steered the car into the shoulder of the road half a mile from the field so they could catch their breath and take a moment. But–

_Bang!_

Aster instantly shot his head up and saw Tooth's fists leave the dashboard before she punched it again.

_Bang!_

When she pulled it back again, she then hit the side of her door...smacked her seat...slapped her legs, and screamed until she covered her face.

"N-Not again...NOT AGAIN!"

Aster looked at her with a sad, wide-eyed look. His lips parted.

"THI–"

"It's all my fault! It's _always_ my fault! Tu...T-Tuhina's gonna be...a-and _another's_ already been kidnapped in another city! And Jack, I just..."

She then sobbed.

"I-I just can't do anything _right_ for anyone anymore!"

She then leaned forward on her seat to put her head in her arms – and all the emotions from the field earlier, the video, her mother, Mr. Sandy caught up with her in one violent, overwhelming choke hold.

"I..." she heaved angrily and swallowed down a hard lump in her throat. _'Don't cry,' _she screamed at herself. _'Don't cry!'_

And Aster lowered his hand from where it was going to touch her, even though she couldn't see it.

"I-I'm sorry, Toothiana...I..." Aster shook his head at himself in disbelief, seeing her shoulders jerk slightly. "I'm sorry! Argh, _I'M SORRY!"_

A second later, his fists slammed on the wheel and it honked loud like truck. Tooth jumped and pulled back from the dashboard with a scared look.

Aster's expression was furious, and one of self-loathing – all the nerve he had for her melted away suddenly and he was left so emotionally exhausted. After his fists tightened and he shook them briefly, he ran both gloves into his hair. His nostrils flared and Tooth's glistening eyes (from her own self-pity) widened.

"W-What're you talking about, Edmund?!" she sputtered and shook her head, her big curls smacking her cheeks desperately. "Y-You h-have nothing to be sorry abou–"

"I DO!" he shouted and he looked at her. "I...Tch, I let you down!"

"N-No..." she shook her head again, more wildly this time. "_N-NO!_ You didn't!"

"I did!" And he shut his eyes and pressed a tight glove over his forehead. "You were countin' on me and I–I-I wasn't fast enough!"

"Edmund, st-stop it! You di–"

"And thanks to me too, now the bloke's runnin' outta time and I...I just...Argh, I'm not cut out to be this!"

"Be what?" Tooth demanded. _"Be what?!"_

"Being your protector!"

Tooth paused. Her mouth fell open.

"But...B-But you aren't my–"

"God, knows I want to, sheila!" Aster whirled on her. His eyes were so lit with a deep flame that Tooth's heart beat rapidly from the intensity. "I'm a protector it's what I do! It's what I've _been_ doing for so long and you could've gotten hurt! You're a _princess_ but with your size, y...your skills, they wouldn't have been enough unless Jack had–"

Toothiana frowned deeply.

What was he saying? ..._Why_ was he saying that?

"I want to look out for you, I do!" he pushed. "I wanna be the one whose there's for you and gets the job done! But I..." And his eyebrows knit together irritably."But I keep messing it up. And _argh_, that's _TWICE_ already!"

Aster then pressed both hands to his face and squeezed his eyes shut.

Tooth's mouth hung open for a while longer. The sheen in her eyes grew more and more prevalent – why did everything and everyone fall apart around her?

"I'm sorry, princess," he muttered as he pulled his gloves away from his face. When he placed them on the wheel with a tight grip, his eyes narrowed through the dark windshield. "I'm worse than 'im."

"Edm...Edmund..."

Tooth gulped again and shut her eyelids briefly. When she opened them, she wiped her eyes and reached over to grab his hand.

"Look at me," she said. "L..._L-Look at me!"_

Aster was trying hard to keep his glare on the darkness, jaw set and intent on holding onto his self-punishment. But Tooth was relentless, she couldn't give up. Every second that ticked by with his face growing darker, was just another reason for her to keep trying.

"Edmund! Please...LOOK AT ME!"

And despite himself, Aster finally turned his green eyes to the princess. His long, handsome features were cast aglow from his computer screens...but he didn't say a word.

Tooth took the plunge instead. She gave a deep breath.

"Do not ever, and I repeat, _ever_ blame yourself for this," she said firm and serious. When he didn't reply, she softened her face and frowned openly. "You _are_ protecting me a-and none of this is your fault!"

When the harshness around the corner of his eyes went away slightly she rolled her lips inwards. But they weren't completely gone, and that meant her tiny, princess heart was still aching with stress.

_"Please_, you gotta believe me," she mumbled and she moved her hand from his hand to his arm. She then gave a strong squeeze. "I'm sorry I-I freaked out just now! I _shouldn't_ have reacted that way, so bitter a-and..."

"But your clones..." he finally mustered up. His voice was so deep it almost sounded like he didn't even speak – it sounded more like the engine of the Aston Martin when he started it up.

But Tooth bit her lip and looked around for a moment.

"The other two...th-they're still safe."

_'At least for a while,'_ but Tooth really didn't want to say that.

"The case was my fault...and them finding you was Jack's. So you're not the problem. Really."

When Aster looked at her again, she frowned desperate for him to understand.

_"...Really."_

And he couldn't look away...She was trying so hard to be comforting, to make him her center of attention even after everything that revolved around her. So trying, so broken...

Yet he couldn't take it, his heart was still teetering on the edge.

"Princess–"

"No, don't say _anything,"_ she cut him off. For the sake of his bravado, the one he was always trying so hard to maintain, she'd didn't want him to get all uncomfortable. Instead, she nodded encouragingly.

"Just drive," she mumbled. "...We can _do_ this."

Aster's mouth still hung open, desperate to hang onto this moment. He hadn't felt this way in such a long time – being looked out for, and having something to look forward to. She made _such_ a turn on his life...and he wondered what it would be like to spend the rest of his life with someone like that.

But...could he? _Could_ he give up everything, the life he only knew, for a girl like Toothiana?

He glanced back at her as he readjusted his mirrors and turned up the heat the counter the cold from the broken window. As she bundled herself up more and shot him a tiny, smile through her sadness from the passenger seat, Aster's grip loosened on the wheel.

The answer was yes. No argue, no debate...definitely, yes.

But he already knew she was looking at someone else.

Still, he then shot her back the most tender smile she'd ever seen, but she missed his neck grow red in the dark. To her, his protectiveness was so chivalrous, so older-brotherly. After he eyed the road again, his voice hit a level of soft she didn't realise was possible until now.

"W-We should hit Burgess within in the hour," he said. "Keep an eye on him."

And she nodded.

Then as he started to drive, Tooth decided to twist around and move into the backseats to keep an eye on you-know-who. She gave Jack a tender smile of her own albeit a lot less sad than Aster's.

"You hear that? We'll get to Burgess soon," she murmured loudly to Jack.

His open expression did nothing...but something in her tone caught his attention, and while he didn't _see_ her, his face drifted to hers and he stared back, long and wistful...almost apologetic.

And Tooth frowned. She then shook her head before raising a hand to his cheek.

_"It's not your fault,"_ she whispered sadly and after a moment, she pulled away and looked out the window with her fist in her mouth. Tuhina didn't have much time and neither did her other sister. And as much as her chest flared with hot energy and her eyes teared up, that was what Tuhina was. Forever and always...not a clone, a _sister._

But having sisters, it seemed to Tooth, always meant she had to suffer, always meant she was to blame.

_**"******__I_t's all my fault...It's ALWAYS my fault!"

And Jack shut his eyes and clutched his hair.

"I'm sorry, Em..." he mumbled. "I'm sorry..."

* * *

Chapter's Soundtrack: "First Person Shooter" – Celldweller **One of ****the Aster's official tracks for all things gritty and 'electronic' lol. And creds to Perfect Disasters for providing me with such stellar new adjectives haha. You rock!**


	31. Good Luck, Y'Little Ankle Biter

**"Solider, shine on****. With your conscience open. And the curtain folds in with the drums."****  
**

* * *

_Jack Frost...__You've suddenly become more interesting to me than your name and record permits...I'm impressed..._

_To think all this time, a cruel thing like you actually worth of my time, has been searching the shadows for me while you were nothing but a speck on my radar. Almost invisible, really._

_...then what? Disappear like the wind?_

_...just by your stance, that twitch on your mouth, and the curve of your fingers, I know more about you in ten seconds than dear Thia ever could in four days__...You're afraid of losing something. You're afraid, period._

_...you start to wonder if there's even a piece of you left to save. Any piece left even __worth__ saving._

_...you're afraid that if you get her too close, she'll either end up like anyone who came before her...or better, you're afraid she'll leave you once she realises how much of a mess you really are..._

_And see? I found it...__That's__ what you're really afraid of...Of being all alone again with no one left to believe in you and everything you stand for._

_...that __look__ in your face? That cold? That's not bred, that's __born.__ Straight from within you, after years and years of being felt alone in the dark...Just. Like. Me._

_More to the point, Jack...What did __you__ do? And who are you, __really?__ Because I think I have a clue._

...

_PA-93 Interstate, Pennsylvania, 4:47 a.m._

With heavy hearts and broken windows, the Aston Martin continued down the interstate trying to beat to the sun. Aster was glad (for like, about a _second_) once he realised that their bloody car chase had shortened their time expectancy. When he stopped the car so he and Tooth could have their 'emotional breakdowns' they were about two miles east of Bloomsburg – that town was halfway between Trout Run (when their chase had started) and Burgess. The drive normally took more than hour, but with the Nightmare on their butt, they'd gunned it in about 40 minutes!

So only one hour left to go...but this time, Aster drove a whole lot more carefully.

The Aston Martin left Bloomsburg then drove and drove for another 50 miles. Aster spent his time checking up on the ELF news feeds and the status of the car. He'd have to do a lot of body work when he got back to The Warren but the computers performed with perfection and that was what he was more concerned with. Tooth meanwhile chewed every stick of gum she had left, sung songs in her head, and poked Jack in the face every time he looked at her with his dazed eyes.

Then finally, an hour and ten minutes later, Aster exited the Interstate and drove on a long, winding ghost road.

That's when Aster saw something the distance.

"Princess?"

And Tooth pulled her head up from where it was squished against a corner to avoid the high winds. She pursed her lip thoughtfully as she stared at his eyes in the rearview mirror.

"I think we're coming up."

As the road curved slightly, it hit a large and beautiful river that shone in the moonlight. The car drove alongside it and Tooth looked across Jack to stare breathlessly through the left window.

...

_5:12 a.m._

Aster killed the engine once they drove the car off the dirt road and onto the shoulder again. The Aston Martin died with a gentle rumble and as his whole system went on standby, the tech analyst sighed.

"Ah, poor baby. Look at her, all tuckered out," he mumbled and patted the top of his dashboard.

Tooth gave a sad smile before she looked out the window again and into the snow.

"Why'd you stop here?" she asked politely as the moon made the open field beside the river glisten.

"Burgess' just beyond that curve," he explained and when he pointed through the windshield, Tooth saw a bend in the road that broke off from the rest of the interstate. It followed the river and at the end of it, was a tall line of trees where a forest began.

Then he continued.

"But I think we should get out here...Try to ease him into it, y'know?"

And Tooth nodded.

"Yeah, good thinking."

That was smart, they didn't want him to get suckerpunched by the memories if they moved too fast again.

So as Aster unbuckled himself, Tooth opened her door. The wind instantly swept up into her face.

Tightening her purple scarf, she turned back around to get Jack. She unbuckled his seatbelt and shook his shoulder a little.

"Jack?" she called. "Can you hear me?"

_**"******__..._Can you hear me?"

Jack turned his head.

_Pitch and the Nightmares had vanished awhile ago and Jack had spent the rest of his time, dashing through the forest, trying to locate Tooth's ball of light._

_Several times he saw the little girl with brown hair flying behind her. "Follow me!" she kept saying and flickered past his eyes into the trees. But each time he took a step or two after her, he stopped. "No, I...I have to find her first!" And he'd go running in the other direction. Jack could worry about himself, worry his own needs AFTER he found Tooth and made sure Pitch hadn't caught her – the bastard wouldn't have appeared unless he did, so Jack had to keep hoping._

_Every time he saw a flicker of worrying light he went after it._

_**"**__.._.Can you hear me?"

_Her voice came back. It made his chest flare up, his adrenaline pumping. As he pushed further, following the echo and the glimpse of light in the moonlit forest, he started to realise that the Wonderland was starting to change somewhat._

_It'd stopped decaying but it wasn't growing back to life either – it was...it was almost like it had went on a standstill. _

'_But why?'_ he'd asked himself. _Was something on the outside that he wasn't yet aware of? Had they gotten somewhere? Was something happening to–_

Tooth leaned out of the car to get a full look at Jack. She saw his fingers flex wildly as the cold air blew in. It couldn't even be called twitching the more she looked at him.

It looked more like Jack's hands were actually..._shaking._

And she frowned.

Moving quick, Tooth reached back in and grasped one securely. Tooth then tried to pull him out of the car – just like he'd done for her the night he piggybacked her down the runway.

* * *

_...a second later, the door opened on its own and Jack was pulling her arms out._

_"Tooooth," he groaned and she gave a breathy chuckle._

_"Okay, okay. Sorry."_

* * *

"Come on," she said gently and tugging gently. "Follow me, Jack. Listen to my voice...I'm right here."

_**"**__L_isten to my voice...Follow me, Jack..."

His scowl deepened on his face when he head twitched but he didn't resist. His eyes looked everywhere, but from the bleeding effect they weren't really seeing her.

_His hands grew warm, something tugged him. When Jack turned, he saw Tooth's ball of light floating up a hill...it was going back to the path he'd first abandoned. _

_Jack wasted no time. He cat vaulted over a dead trunk and tore up the incline after her. Every metre he drew closer, her warning light blinked less and less rapidly._

He responded by gripping her fingers. His right ungloved hand grabbed onto her right, gloved one.

Tooth's heart beat a little faster.

_'At least he hasn't broken all my fingers yet,' _she thought to herself – but then again, her left hand _was_ still sore from his bone-crushing grip earlier. But she didn't voice it and continued to help Jack get out of the car.

When her head came out of the car again, Aster appeared from behind, ready to help in case she needed it. She looked up.

The snow had stopped so the sky was clear again. Moonlight behind her bathed everything and with the snow reflecting it so serenely, everything had a soft, white glow. An icy breath left her lips.

"So _this_ is what Christmas in winter looks like," she whispered to herself. _"Aww..."_

Tooth looked down to check her footing in the snow as she moved out...and she missed what Aster saw.

Just as she tilted her head, Jack's glazed eyes moved up to the moon behind her and his breath shortened. Something in his chest ignited suddenly and with his empty hand, he threw it up to the spot where his gunshot wound was. He clutched the front of his leather jacket for a second before he shut his mouth and looked down. Then it was almost like it didn't happen.

Aster's expression grew grim when Tooth looked back up and continued like it was nothing.

Once Jack was out of the car and standing on his own feet, Tooth moved him away from the car. He was looking around slowly like he didn't recognize the place.

_'Wait duh, he doesn't,'_ Tooth miffed. _'At least...not yet.'_

Suddenly his head jerked again and he leaned heavily on one boot. Yet despite her nervousness, remembering the same throat holdthat the Nightmare got, Tooth moved in and linked arms with him. From that vantage, Jack was able to use her as some invisible crutch – at first, he tensed himself, wondering who it was, but the peppermint in her breath calmed him instantly. He leaned his toned arm against her and continued to look around.

Aster nodded at her quick thinking before he moved to the back of the car.

"Walk him out into the field, sheila?" he asked as he popped open the trunk. He then pointed to his complink in his ear. "I gotta grab somethin' and just check in with North."

"Sure," she said with a puffy cloud of air. "But don't take too long." Then Tooth guided Jack from the dirt into the snow – but the second her boot went into the snow, she cringed. Aster's deep voice murmured to North in the back.

Being in the powerful heat of the Aston for an hour really warmed her up and made all the bitter iciness she'd felt from the company, _and_ the forest, _and _the car chase, go away. She huffed as she watched her boot and Jack's sink in until the snow was up to their ankles.

_'And how ridiculous am I for wearing a skirt and leather pants in this winter!?'_

But in her defence, she _thought_ once they left Wales that this trip to finding Jack's memories would've been an easy one. You know, hail a cab (or steal one), and drive virtually anonymous on the open road until boom, problem solved...But she should've guessed that everything from that thought would've been completely wrong.

Oh well, lesson learned.

When the ice bit her legs through her skin-tight spy pants, Tooth gritted her teeth.

"I-It's pretty cold here, huh?" she mumbled to Jack, her lips quivering. The area around Burgess seemed to have gotten way more snow than the rest of the towns they passed, and Tooth could only guess that it was because of the large river drifting calmly on the side – they probably got more moisture and condensation because of it.

"You cold?" she tried again.

She looked up at her mute partner.

Nope, still mute.

And hello? He was Jack Frost – he didn't _'feel'_ the cold remember? It was even apparent in the way his boots lifted in and the out of the snow like it was cotton and not frigid ice biting at his feet.

Even on autopilot, Jack was still the catlike, stealthy operative he was.

She sighed as he followed her quickly through the snow. Several times though, Jack hesitated like he was unsure of where he was going or where to put his boot down. But Tooth would pat his arm or tug it gently.

"Don't worry, Jack, you're doing good," she said, encouraging his subconscious. "Y-You're gonna be fine."

And the echo of his voice from the Wales penthouse came up in the back of her mind.

* * *

_"You're...You're gonna be fine."_

_"Y...You sure?"_

_When the wind picked up, he frowned and dismissed it before he continued to look out the window._

_"You just have to believe in me."_

* * *

Tooth frowned.

"Just keeping listening to my voice and follow me, alright?...You're not in any danger, y..."

And she lifted her head and looked around the field. "Th..."

Her magenta-hued eyes darted this way and that. Was there anything she could use to help him to comfort him, to help him jog his memory? Could she lay him the snow? Throw him in the river? What–

Then she froze.

"The..."

Her heartbeat wildly.

"...It's here...It's..." she gasped a little under her breath as Jack. "Ha, I believe it! It's here!"

And without waiting, she started to pull Jack's form.

"Come on, you vegetable..." and reaching down she grasped his hand again and lifted it out in front of them. She then pointed her index finger and looked at him.

"Right over there! The sign, it's _just_ over there, Jack!"

_**"**__...he_re...Right over...It's just..."

_Jack's feet pounded the dirt harder. Tooth's light stopped blinking and became a constant glow of energy the higher he jumped, the closer he came. As he did, the memories flickered._

_**"******__He's_ ready now...You're ready, Jac–" His eyes flew open and he pulled his head of the water.

_He passed several trees. As he looked at them, he realised they weren't hanging medals anymore. They were hanging blue-green dresses. The avocadoes were gone – in their place were giant glass balls filled with water and fake snow. His forehead creased and he focused back on Tooth._

_**"**__..._over...It's here!"

_He felt his hand lift up as he neared her. And just within reach, Jack shut his eyes. He blocked out everything, the dead trees, the gun piles around him, the staff in his other hand, Pitch's shadows..._

_**"**__Ha_haha, Jack! You're–"

_...He even blocked out the little girl's laughter._

"Careful for the rock," Tooth mumbled worriedly and Jack on some unknown level heard her again and paused as he moved his boot. He lifted it a little higher and successfully avoided tripping over it before he continued.

She felt like a nurse guiding a patient, and that left a bitter taste in her mouth.

Jack wasn't sick, he wasn't broken – he was just confused, like kids at birthday parties who played 'Pin the Tail on the Donkey' with their eyes blindfolded. They had a vague idea of where the donkey was and what it looked like but until they figured out where to put the tail on the wall, open their eyes, see the whole drawing, and eat cake after.

And that all suddenly made Tooth frown.

Did Jack ever _play_ 'Pin the Tail on the Donkey'? Did he ever go to a birthday party? Did he...Did he have one of his own as a kid? Play games, have friends? _Eat cake?_

...What was his life _like_ before this whole espionage takeover?

Something pinched her heart thinking about the Jack Frost beside her...as a little boy once.

She may have been _born_ into this Project GUARDIAN mess from the start, but at least she had a relatively normal childhood as a kid...with people who looked after her, who stuck for up for her...who loved her.

* * *

_"T-Toothie! Ar-are you okay?!" Tiana cried. "Everyo-Ev'ry...W-We thought you were gone!"_

_"__You are so special, Toothie...and you do not even know it yet."_

* * *

And without a second thought, she pulled her father's necklace from under her turtleneck and gave the golden clasp that attached the tiny rainbow feathers a tight squeeze.

"Hang in there, Jack," she said a little more loudly. Her eyes narrowed slightly. "You're almost there."

...

_Sign in front of Burgess, Pennsylvania, 5:21 a.m._

Neither said a word as the air left their lips.

Tooth tried to pull Jack closer to the sign but he'd frozen about three metres in front of it and wouldn't budge.

His eyes were still clouded as he moved them along the burgundy colored sign held up by two strong wooden logs.

They each kept reading the sign over and over again.

_Welcome to Burgess.  
Home of The Brave, The Strong, The Few  
Population: 9,346 – Next 4.7 miles to Lehighton._

Tooth's lips quivered.

"It's real..._It's really real_..." She gulped.

"So?" she murmured softly. _"Anything?" _

She shifted her grip on his arm, when she looked up, Jack's eyes were still eyeing the sign with mild attention. When he started to look away from it, she called his name, sounding almost offended.

_"Jack._"

He looked down at her, slow and blank as ever. She frowned.

"Come on," she urged. "We're standing right in front of...D-Do you even remember?"

"..."

"Jack!"

He still said nothing – and it made Tooth scared that he wasn't even turning back around to look at it.

She started to panic.

"JACK! Come ON! _Look_ at the sign! You said –Y-You said this was..."

They didn't just drive _five hours_ (no wait, four–oh, forget it!) and almost get themselves _killed_ so he could just play pokerface with the town's post! But his mouth opened slightly and a crease came on his forehead as he continued to stare at Tooth.

_'No, idiot, no!'_ she said in her head, cheeks turning red. _'Don't read ME read the SIGN!'_

Why wasn't he responding? Why wasn't he changing?! Why wasn't he–

"Ahh!" And Tooth grabbed his shoulders and shook him like a crazy person – to _hell_ with personal boundaries and getting her arm twisted again. At this rate, _she'd _beat _him_ up first!

"I'm _losing_ it, Jack! Wake up and read the sign, _please!_ Or I swear to god, I'm gonna–"

"Argh!"

Jack's eyebrows flew up and he clutched both sides of his head to stop it from swinging back and forth. She yelped and let go of him instantly. Was he...

His blue eyes looked around in a nervous daze when she lifted her hands a little off his shoulders.

"Sorry!" she squealed. "W-Wait, can you..."

He didn't answer, but after a moment, he dropped his hands and looked down at the snow. He was trying to find the answer to something in it...but he wasn't getting it.

"I-I...I'm sorry!" she apologized quickly and dropped her hands completely at her sides. "I didn't mean..."

She bit her lip when his eyebrows lowered themselves and his daze returned.

Man, she was really pumping out the apologies this morning...

...and they_ sucked._

Tooth then sighed as she watched Jack's fingers flex absentmindedly in the wind again. In his half-conscious self, it surged for a moment under his face and made his hood and his hair fly wildly. When it cut abruptly, the brown-white fringe of his bangs stuck into his eyelashes and made him blink repeatedly.

She frowned deeply again, her own red nose tickling and her eyes growing dry from the wind.

...

_Outskirts of Burgess, 5:25 a.m._

Aster's anxieties skyrocketed the second he turned his complink off. His entire body started to shake.

After a moment of flitting his green eyes wildly across the ground, he clenched down hard on his large teeth.

North was right. North was always right.

His hands tightened into fists for a moment...but then he blinked. He stopped – and a sigh escaped through nostrils.

Aster then shut his eyes before he placed Jack and Tooth's bags on the ground beside the Aston. Afterwards, he rubbed his gloves together.

"_Bloody cold..."_ he muttered – And _this_ was why he always housed up in the Warren during the winter months. Would he _ever_ be allowed back in Australia?

Not wanting to dwell on it, he left the car and jogged back into the snow after the two. He was already stretched for time and North's call left him on edge. He needed to tell them.

"You guys?!" he barked. "Y–"

Aster paused when a gust of wind blew suddenly straight at him.

_"Bullocks,"_ he said grouchily and squinted his eyes. Now every time a harsh piece of wind smacked him across the face, he'd blame Jack. He wasn't sure _how_ Princess Thia dealt with his bloke – he was even more unpredictable than the tech analyst.

But when it died away, he looked and realised he was a little more than a few feet from them. It looked like they were having a moment.

Toothiana tilted her head up at Jack. After a while, he saw her lips move and she frowned deeply. He then watched as she lifted her hand to push Jack's bangs out of his eyes.

Aster couldn't find another word other than..._tenderness_ to match the action.

But that was Tooth, always caring. And as much as his eagerness was painfully short-lived, he knew he wouldn't have wanted to meet her any other way. Aster then shook his head firmly of other thoughts and stepped forward.

Jack was pretty lucky, even if he didn't know it yet – but he frowned when he saw the shorter brunette's blank stare.

"You guys alright?" he asked as he finally approached them with concern.

Tooth blushed when she realised she was almost caught doing something completely intimate. She moved away from Jack and let him walk around on his own. His posture was still straight and sure, but he kept staring at everything in a daze.

"U-Uh yeah," she stuttered before flicking a sad gaze to Jack. "He's not reacting yet though...How is North?"

"He's...He's fine," Aster said after a pause. "He's glad we found Jack's POA. He was really worried."

Tooth lifted an eyebrow.

"POA?"

"Place of Awakening," Aster shrugged. "North likes givin' everything weird names. But he wished us luck and hoped we could get his memories and help him heal again."

Toothiana threw her hands up.

"And he's right! Because between the three of us, we can do it," and she shot him a warm smile, _"right?"_

But Aster frowned.

"Well, actually..."

Tooth's eyebrows scrunched together.

"What's wrong? You okay?"

"I..." He rubbed his neck and looked between them. "This is sorta urgent."

"...W-What is?"

"North's call reminded me...You know, with the whole Nightmare _bullocks_ we just went through I almost forgot about–"

_**They stood absolutely still as they watched the three figures stand close together far in the distance.**_

_**One was tall, another kept shaking their head, and the third was walking around in a small circle looking out for possible eavesdroppers.**_

_**They didn't know that a group of four takedown operatives were already waiting for them on a building ...and that one of those operatives was already mounting a sniper on the edge. His buddies leaned in around him and they all narrowed their eyes anxiously.**_

"_**Wind...10.4 knots, N47°E," he murmured.**_

_**He then adjusted the reticle knob on the top of the rifle scope to match wind speed. He didn't need to adjust the parallax or the elevation – they all knew they were about a thousand feet from the ground and that the targets were 300 yards away. For any other sniper, making this shot angle would be difficult to calculate.**_

_**He exhaled gently and when the knob finished clicking and his POI aligned, his team leader knelt on one knee beside him.**_

"_**Mil-dots accurate?" he asked. The sniper looked through his scope and read the crosshairs in the lens as he started to zero on the target. The numbers on the cross were the same as the reticles he'd calculated.**_

"_**Affirmative."**_

"_**Alright, take the shot when you're ready."**_

_**And his man moved into position, tightening his grip on the rifle. When he was sure he'd made sure the crosshairs were perfectly in center with his zero distance, he placed his finger on the trigger. **_

_**There was a pregnant silence in the air.**_

_**His shot angle had to be perfect.**_

_**And as the tall figure moved into the center line of the scope...he exhaled...**_

_**No said a word, no one breathed. **_

_**Then...**_

_**...he fired. **_

_**BA–**_

Jack gasped.

The breath left his lips and the memory left his mind.

_Something like a blue ripple effect washed across his Wonderland. It wasn't cold and quick like the blue wave he'd seen when they arrived on the company's field – it was soft and soothing, like one drop in the water, pushing away from him gently._

_And in its ripples, the forest started to flicker in and out and Jack could see their falsity. He held his breath._

_'What's happening?'_

_**"**__W_hy don't you stay with us?...R-Really?...'es, yes! Stay!"

Jack blinked and for a second...he saw past the Wonderland and saw the _real_ things around him!

He saw the night sky and felt snow under his boot.

Aster's gruff voice floated into his ear. Then Tooth's, high and clear like a breath of fresh air.

Jack turned his head in slow motion, feeling like it was swimming through molasses.

In a blurry daze, he saw the moonlight shine off the slope of the hill. He saw the snow glitter and there was a weird shaped rock that –

_**"–'**__s_y...EASY!" the shadow of someone reflecting off the stone came from the moon. The rock was too close. It almost hit him–

Jack's eyes then saw a hole in the ground faraway. It looked like a burrow that belonged to some kind of small animal, like a rabbit or a groundhog–

"–_**his eyes closed?...Partially, but he's been known to do that–Make sure no one can see us!...Well, nothing **_**human**_** will..." As they gripped Jack's tight under his arms and continued to carry him, his bleary eyes turned in time to just as they passed the burrow. A furry little groundhog was peeking out to stare at them–**_

Jack snapped his head back to face directly in front of him. The ripple came back, the forest in his head went away, and the sign of Burgess flickered in front of him.

_'It's the s...It's B–'_

Suddenly, another soft ripple went off. It calmed his mind and made the jumbling in his brain slow down. And when it finally spread away, the Wonderland vanished.

But...for how long?

Jack was left short of breath

That's when Aster's voice started to drift into his ears again, clearer and...sad.

"–only you two will actually be going because I need to leave...I need to go to New York."

"You are?"

Aster and Tooth jumped a mile in the air at the deep, husky voice.

They spun to face him.

Tooth covered her mouth and her eyes grew wide but she didn't run up to him like she wanted to – she was afraid that anything she might say or do might set him off again.

Had the bleeding effect worn off?

Jack looked at her for a brief a moment and read her body language instantly; along with her restraint – and for the latter, he was grateful because he remembered what he'd done to her earlier.

* * *

_Toothiana finally caught up to him grasped his arm._

_"J–"_

_He reacted. Reaching down, he untwisted from Tooth's grip and pulled her arm high above her head. She squealed._

_"Aah, Jack! No, don't–"_

* * *

As he continued to stare at Tooth's fear and Aster's cautionary glare, his fingers twitched.

They didn't escape the Australian's keen eyes.

Jack sensed him and looked at him again.

"We're here...You got us all the way here. So why are you leaving?"

And Aster frowned. Jack hadn't said anything since...well, since they escaped with their lives after the explosion back in the Buffalo. That was over almost five hours ago – but they couldn't say they were relieved (and a little disturbed) that he could see them again.

The hacker threw his green eyes down for a moment and quickly pulled something from his jeans. When the moonlight caught it, his puka shell USB gleamed slightly.

"The list..." Tooth mumbled and Aster nodded. She was trying so hard not to look at Jack in case he slipped away again. She didn't want to get her hopes up and focused on Edmund he answered Jack's question.

"I've got _every_ GUARDIAN from the program in here. _Every._ _One_." His tone was so deep and serious that even his hand shook slightly with each emphasis of his words. "And no one's _ever _seen this before so I need to send this quickly to one of the ELFs in Manhattan so that he can send it to North...That way we can figure what happened to the rest of the agents."

"B-But why can't you just wait until we've_ both_ helped Jack?" Tooth shook her head in the wintry air. "Then we can all go back together!"

"_Because_, princess. I'd like to stay, I _do_...but as much as I want to continue helping you and Jack–"

Jack didn't hear the rest.

As Aster continued and Tooth's eyes were focused nervously on the tiny data stick in his glove, Jack's eyes grew wide.

Tooth flickered in his vision for a second and became a ball of light between blinks and Aster vanished and became one of the trees from his Wonderland. He shook his head.

_'No, don't come back,' _he pleaded. _'Don't come back!'_

_**"–eally gonna love it with us, Jack." Then someone shook his hand. "And with your marks, we know you'll fit right in!"**_

Jack moved and gazed around the field with his shifting vision. He then turned from the two of them and walked away a little.

"J-Jack?" Tooth called with a slight panic in her tone but he waved his hand down at her.

"It's okay, I'm still here," he shouted back. "I'm just trying to remember this place."

When he got a cluster of dead weeds, he knelt one boot in the snow and glared at it.

It looked familiar.

Suddenly–

_**Someone's boot pressed into the snow beside it and left a large boot print, leaving behind strange grooves. Then the person's shadow that belonged it was cast by the moonlight. First it was the guy's leg, then his whole body, then another person, and a another...and they were carrying a body between them.**_

_**"**__Ca_reful wi...'sly? Wh–"

"–_eed _to. And who knows what else this list is attached to?" Aster meanwhile continued. He and Tooth were looking back at each other nervously. "The longer I hang onto it, the more danger it'll bring...especially to _you _two. So that's why we need to split up."

"No, _no, _this isn't right," Tooth rubbed her head. She looked at the tree line of Burgess and shivered when the snow. She frowned. She really didn't like how this argument was going.

Why did she keep losing people?

She only had so many she could gather and hold onto...

* * *

_She then blindly reached down for the coins that Haroom gave her on his royal trips and held them tightly. "I ha-have to...I-I..."_

* * *

Aster's thick eyebrows furrowed when he sensed her distress past her feigned determination.

"That Nightmare got away," he pushed. "He already saw my face, but he didn't recognise you, _did he?_"

Tooth shook her head and made a frustrated line with her lips.

"No, I don't think he didn't."

How _could_ he? The car had been so dark when he swooped in that he hadn't even seen Jack come forward and assault him from behind. Not to mention that when they'd chased him on the field, the sky had been pretty dark – so if he _had _recognised her and tried to kidnap her too – well, they'd probably all have a lot more bruises, or worse...she might've been long gone.

"And what about him?" he nudged his head at the brunette still kneeling in the snow.

Tooth shook her head again and after she followed his line of vision, she smirked weakly at the back of Jack's blue hood.

"The Nightmare was too busy shitting himself by your little tag-team act. I-I'm gonna miss it...and you haven't even shown me all your cool gadgets yet."

And Aster smiled as he continued to look at Jack scoping the place. At least she was trying to smile again – and her appreciation for their ass-kicking was genuine.

The tech analyst then turned to her.

"It's better that you stay with him."

Tooth looked at up at him as he continued.

"Jack, he..." he flit his gaze at the brunette again seeing the bloke rub his eye. "He knows you more than me. I'm still a stranger, so you're really the only one who can be there for them and help him."

"But that doesn't make any sense! When you're hurting, you...it shouldn't matter how many people should be there for you so–"

_"Exactly."_

Tooth looked up at him with squinty eyes. Her mouth parted again but Aster looked back down at her. He gave a small smile.

"Jack's a spy, and he knows that sometimes, two's a crowd. One is enough, trust me."

And Tooth blinked.

* * *

_"I have you, __and _that's enough,_ alright?"_

_"I'm not a med student or surgeon!...a-and I can't–"_

_"You're _enough_, Tooth!" _

* * *

Aster then nudged his head at Jack.

"Take care of each other."

And by his slow (but suspiciously hopeful) tone, Tooth froze. It obviously meant more than one thing.

He was freaking smart...He knew he couldn't make a triangle when there were only two sides to it.

(Tooth's tanned cheeks blossomed with pink and Aster smiled slightly.)

But at least, she'd reminded him that if he left his hole and came back to the surface, there'd be other sweet, funny, and great girls like her.

After an embarrassing moment, Tooth bit her lip and looked up at him nervously...and a sheepish smile crept onto her face.

"W-We always do," she finally mumbled, then scratched the back of her neck. "You know, in our own...broken, mashed up kind-of way."

And he rolled his eyes.

"Okay, don't go soundin' like the lyrics to every love song."

And she actually laughed and smacked his arm before he moved in, bent down, and hugged her. Tooth returned it wholeheartedly.

She would miss Edmund immensely even having only known him for less than a day. He really _was_ like the older brother she never had – and in her own accomplishments, she'd never really had a lotof guy friends so she enveloped herself in this admittance and acceptance of a long-standing friendship that she wouldn't let go.

With a light squeeze, Tooth smiled a little sadder.

_"Don't eat anymore chocolate,"_ she threatened and he chuckled sending a deep rumble through his fur-lined coat.

"I make no promises."

When she chuckled, he smiled sadly. To him, this goodbye hug was weighing down more on his heart than he would admit. But it still filled him with vigour, reminding him of why he was doing it...of why he he'd been a GUARDIAN in the first place, and on some level, still _was_.

He squeezed her tiny body back too, trying to hang onto the moment.

...

Jack turned around in time to see them hug. He stood there for a moment, his face unreadable.

As Aster pulled away, he caught Jack's blank stare and the two didn't move.

Tooth meanwhile was oblivious to their awkward stareoff. She had turned her head to the Aston Martin still parked in the distance – that's when she noticed that Aster had placed their bags next to the wheel and it made her heart sink more.

He really_ was_ planning on leaving...but...

Tooth grasped her chain.

He had to...he _needed_ to. He'd legitimized his reasons and his chivalry for doing so two hours ago when they'd had their emotional breakdowns...He was a GUARDIAN and a _guardian_ through and through. He could wait for Jack, but he couldn't wait for the world, and if it meant that she could help _one_ GUARDIAN so that he could help _hundreds_...then she wasn't angry, wasn't bitter.

She was proud. She'd miss him; she'd miss his blue-frosted hair and that one silver streak, she'd his tattooed forearms, and she'd miss how he always called her 'sheila'...but she'd be _proud_.

...She'd also miss his car.

_'First the motorcycle, then this sports car...Ugh, what a cruel world!'_ she cried in her head. _'Goodbye Aston!'_ And she waved a limp hand at the car as if it were a person too.

Aster and Jack were still sizing each other up until finally, Aster's stern eyes softened slightly and he nudged his at Toothiana.

"You better look after her," he threatened. Tooth instantly came back and moved away from him.

"Edmund," Tooth huffed. "Don't start. I can look after myself."

As she put her hands on her hips, Aster stepped forward a little and pointed at her.

"I mean it, Frostbite," he continued and Jack bristled as he walked back up to them. "Don't put her into any more dangerous situations or I'll go straight jackrabbit on your ass. _I'm trustin' you not to screw up."_

Tooth bit the inside of her cheek and looked down. He still undermined her ability even after all she'd pulled?

But Jack frowned and rubbed eye.

"She doesn't need it," he muttered and Tooth looked up.

Aster frowned.

_"What?"_

"I used to be her protector but now she's my partner," Jack continued, "She's more than capable of handling herself. But don't worry, I've got her back."

After a second, Jack looked down to tighten his glove on his left hand. He missed Tooth's shocked expression and the blushing smile that spread across her lips. That answer seemed to be more than Aster thought he'd ever get from the brunette because his mouth fell slightly open.

But the tech analyst's mouth quickly pulled itself up and a corner of his lip twitched upward.

Maybe Jack wasn't such a..._jackass_ after all.

"By the way?" Jack muttered slowly. He looked like what he was about to say was equivalent to chewing glass. Aster (and even Tooth waited) and then...

"...Thanks for everything. You were..." and Tooth's eyebrows shot up in stunned silence.

Great? A big help? A lifesaver?

"...half-decent."

Oh, nevermind.

But Aster scoffed and crossed his arms.

"How would you even know?" he griped. "You were a doll the entire time. And I was _awesome_."

And Jack didn't miss Tooth's supportive smile to the Bunny's back. He raised an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah?" he challenge. "Then let's race."

"Tch, _you _wanna _race_ me?" he posed and Tooth bit her lip. She forgot that Aster hadn't seen Jack in action yet. And Jack knew it too because he crossed his arms too.

"Yeah," he challenged. "Any_where_, any_time_."

Aster smirked at the offer...but after a moment the amused look vanished and was replaced with seriousness.

"Why don't you _join_ me instead?"

And Jack's eyebrows scrunched together.

"What?"

"Join me," Aster repeated. "And North, and Sandy...Become a GUARDIAN with us again, for the _right _reasons."

Neither noticed Toothiana's eyes grow dark and lonely at the mention of Mr. Sanderson. Jack crossed his arms and he looked down at the snow.

* * *

_"Perhaps you would like to join my intelligence agency and become GUARDIAN again." _

_"Thank you, North, but being a GUARDIAN is the last thing I want. I...think it destroyed me."_

_North nodded humbly and pursed his lips._

_"It has destroyed many of us..."_

* * *

His hand balled into a fist – and for the second time, Jack looked up with a hard gaze.

"No, I stand by my decision. I'm not becoming a GUARDIAN again."

Aster's forehead creased.

"Why not?" he barked. He was suddenly reminded of the missing members of the Aster family that he kept trying to find and locate...only to have all any piece of his life, slip from his fingers. "W-We're the only ones left, we need to st–"

"Look at all the shit they did to so many people just to stop the bad guys," Jack cut him off and his gaze was narrowed and cold again. "We ended up _becoming _the bad guys, and I'm _tired_ of–"

He stopped.

His gaze flickered at Tooth as he paused. She stood frozen, eyes wide and mouth open fretfully. He then turned back to the Aussie.

"...After I regain memories, I'll help Toothiana get her sisters back and I'll help you guys stop Pitch...but after that I'm _done_," he said, voice dropping low. "I don't want to use my abilities like this anymore...not after I've remembered what we sacrificed for all this violence."

Tooth's hands clasped together in front of her desperately and even Aster's fist clenched. But he kept trying to get through to Jack.

"Stop feelin' sorry for yourself," Aster argued and pointed a finger down at Jack. "We've all done things we're not proud of, but...but the good out ways the bad!"

"What _good?!"_ Jack growled. He threw his arms out and instantly the wind tossed itself at him and blew a strong breeze their way. "Everything I've seen from being a GUARDIAN has just been takedown after takedown–"

He remembered the thugs he scared, the criminals' necks he snapped, the Nightmares he stabbed in the eye and the guns he pulled–

"But that's what you damn signed on for when you became an agent, when you _became _a GUARDIAN in the first place!"

"Yeah, I _did!_" Jack spat. "And look what happened, I ended up becoming a monster!"

"A _m_..."

And Aster stopped.

His flame instantly went out as he pulled his face away from Jack's, seeing his face splay with weak control. The twenty-four-year-old's nostrils flared in and out, and his teeth were clenched, but Aster had seen enough to know when he saw a fight he couldn't win.

Jack's heart was bare and open to him in that one heated moment – that made the Australian's thick eyebrows lower instantly until they knitted together sadly.

Aster then suddenly remembered that unlike him having found North immediately the defrag and getting his memories back, Jack had been walking around for a _year_ trying to figure out what to do with his life. He'd been harking on people with the skills and the aggression he'd gotten from the company and didn't know what to do with it but use it as a conduit for his frustrations.

So it made sense...why he'd felt so bitter about himself. And Aster did not blame him.

After a moment of silence between all three of them, Jack rubbed his eye and looked away angrily.

Were they _done_ looking at him, already?

"Jack..." Aster's voice become a mumble.

He then uncrossed his arms and shook his head slowly.

"Don't...Don't give it all up so quickly."

But Jack didn't say anything and kept looking at the taller brunette, daring him to challenge him again – but his narrowed eyes were faltering slightly and his eyes were growing unfocused. The wind tousled his bangs and his hood.

Aster sighed then quickly, he shoved his USB into his jeans pocket and reached for the thing he'd put earlier in his coat pocket before he joined them. "Here then, take this."

Opening his palm, Jack and Tooth saw a small glass container filled with acid, green liquid. Tooth tiled her head and walked back between them to get a better look.

"W-What is it?" she asked timidly. Jack blinked, suddenly remembering his accident when they were down in the SI sector of the company.

* * *

_Jack gasped, dropping the tube to the floor._

_The echoing _pritz!_ of it shattering on the tiles made him jump out of his skin._

_A blink later however..._

_...the woman was gone._

* * *

He frowned at the vial. Aster explained.

"It's a special biotic I salvaged from the company when we were snooping. GUARDIANs used to use it for–"

"Ce...Cell regeneration."

Aster looked up at Jack for a moment. He nodded, glad he remembered.

"Yeah. It responds to the Center gene and helps with the healin' process – and that gunshot won't go away quick enough without it. So I grabbed the only two left but I'm sending the other to North so his scientists can duplicate it."

As he gave it to Jack, it passed Tooth's face – and suddenly, her eyebrows shoot up.

Without even asking, she carefully pulled it from Jack's fingers and brought the glass close to her nose. She then sniffed it.

Aster eyed her funny but she didn't care.

The smell was so strong and made her head light...but she loved it.

"It smells like peppermint..." she mumbled as her eyelids fell halfway over her eyes. She instantly thought of Punjam and its beautiful green plots she could see from the palace window.

When she pulled it away and gave the two a wide-eyed look (albeit a little longer on Jack), her face softened.

Jack looked at her and felt his insides churn. He then turned to Aster, but the hacker was already looking at him.

"I can't come back and get you but I've added my emergency channel to your complink so you can reach me. It's in your bag...I also threw some extra things in it too before we left The Warren," he said nudging back at the car. "Figured somethin' might come up and you'd need...well, you'll see."

That threw Jack completely off. His expression was still pretty cold, but he lifted his eyebrows all the same.

"Why...are you doing all this for me when you didn't need to?" he questioned Aster's strange behaviour. "A good six hours ago we wanted each other dead."

It was true. There was all this unnamed repulse between them, and Jack was certain that they were only doing what they could for Tooth's sake – he figured the second they _did _split, the two would be rivals for life.

Okay yeah, that was a _bit_ dramatic. But Jack was a spy – that usually _did_ happen.

Jack crossed his arms and furrowed his brows together. Aster looked at him for a long moment before the warm air left his lungs and passed over his lips.

As he did, he thought of the family who abandoned him for his own safety, Tooth's misguided loving nature, Project GUARDIAN, and Jack's past, his damn attitude, and the sign behind them.

And his forehead creased gently.

"Everyone deserves second chances," he said serious and with conviction. "And I _believe_ that because I believe in new beginnings...new_ life_."

He then pointed at Jack as the shorter brunette's heavy gaze started to vanish and his lips parted.

New _life?_ What was he talki–

"You weren't killed that night because you were reborn for a reason, Jack," he said. "And few people in this world are giving that lucky chance to start again. I...I'm still pissed at myself for letting you fall like that, but I know you'll rise back up...You'll come out alrigh'. Now I _really_ need to go."

Then Aster turned...and he started to quickly walk away.

Jack's arms uncrossed themselves slowly – but Aster paused and turned his head over his shoulder.

"And like it or not, you're one of us...You_ are_ a GUARDIAN."

He then turned back to Tooth and quickly bowed. Tooth's eyes grew glassy but she smiled and gracefully bowed back too. When she pulled up, she waved at Aster.

"Stay safe!" she cried. And after shooting her one more smile, he shot Jack one too.

"Good luck, mate," he said personally and then looked at the two of them quickly. "And don't stop. With hope, we can _beat_ this...We've each survived this long, righ?"

And Tooth nodded.

* * *

_"I know who you are, princess. Now get in! And gimme my keys before he spots us." _

_"I'll hold him down but you gotta inject North's anesthesia!...But I'm not–I ain't gonna bail and neither are you, got it?...O-Okay..."_

_"He helped you...And now I help __him. __I use my computer skills as a hacker to infiltrate sites and databases for his ELFs."_

_"This list is all Jack and I have left so I need to copy it somehow. B-But I'll find a way, I __know__ I can!"_

_"I know it," Aster immediately breathed and a drop of hope fell into both their hearts. "It's a small town 237 miles southeast of here in Pennsylvania." _

_"Heh, you don't wanna race this rabbit, mate!" _

_"Just drive," she mumbled. "...We can __do__ this." And he shot her the most tender smile she'd ever seen._

* * *

When Aster rushed back to his Aston Martin, he tossed their bags with a powerful swing and Jack caught them effortlessly. He then threw them one more wave.

"When you get your memories back, mate, come find me again or fly to North! Then we can stop Pitch together!"

And despite the distance, Aster didn't miss the slight nod or the light expression on Jack's face. Aster then, shut his door, started the car, and like a black bullet, he made the coupé perform a twist spin and sped back up the road they came, heading northeast for New York.

Jack and Tooth didn't move until his lights and the sounds of the engine were completely gone from the road...until they were completely alone. They tried to remember every piece of memory they each had with the smart, stealthy Australian.

And they both hoped this wasn't the last time they'd see him again.

When the quiet was stifling and the air blow more blustery, Jack sighed passed his pale lips and ran his leather glove through his brown locks. Then he turned back to Tooth, and took the healing biotic from her fingers.

After looking at its creepy contents, the two looked at each other. Tooth frowned.

She hoped Edmund would be okay...she hoped _everyone_ would be okay.

And as she thought of Tuhina for a fleeting moment, Tooth also couldn't help but imagine which other poor, loving sister was in Pitch's clutches too–

"_**We have her. We have the blue crane."**_

_**"**__I-I'_m not a blue crane! I'm Theen–"

_**"**__Do_n't talk!"

_**"******__A_-Ahh!" 

_**"Don't worry." Someone else chuckled. "Your lucky number is 7...You'll see your sisters again."**_

_**But that was a lie. Just like the lie when the ELF said he'd be right back...and she found him lying dead next to the creek when she went to check on him outside their safehouse–**_

Tooth shook her head.

She sometimes hated her imagination...She couldn't bear it if Theena was captured too – that handmaiden always asked so many questions and while she'd sometimes annoy the crap out of the rest of the eight, it was what made Tooth love her just as much.

Tooth briefly shut her eyes...then it was Jack's turn to frown.

He nudged her gently until she opened her eyes. When she looked up at him, she bit her lip. At least he wasn't in a daze anymore...

Jack then shoved the biotic into his leather jacket and after he and Tooth shrugged on their bags, they both turned back towards the sign.

_Welcome to Burgess._

They didn't say a word as they read it over and over.

As they did, Tooth didn't notice the sky growing blue on the horizon...

...and Jack didn't feel his gunshot wound reopen slightly under its bandage.

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "You're The Conversation" – Chris Corner **And that guys, is the end of the Green Arc.****  
**


	32. With Burgess' Blessing

**This chapter gives me emotional pains like everywhere, and oh gosh, sorry about the heinous grammar in the last chapter! I'll fix it later! Gonna go fix the past ones too (and probably this one knowing my luck). Lol okay guys, get comfy! ********And oh, beautiful kudos to the lovely Trumpet-Geek for chatting with me about synaesthesia, I think it's the coolest thing!**

* * *

"**Who I am from the start, take me home to my heart. Let me go and I will run, I will not be silent.  
All this time spent in vain, wasted years, wasted gain. All is lost, hope remains, and this war's not over."**

* * *

_Outskirts of Burgess, 5:32 a.m._

Jack clenched his fist.

He opened his mouth, but the moment he knitted his eyebrows together, Jack paused. His heart suddenly began to race.

The welcome sign was right in front of him, and the moon shone down on it like the night he'd woken up. It made his fingers twitch anxiously but it was no time to be...

No.

No...He _refused_ to say scared.

But god knew he felt it.

So he rubbed his eye instead and put on his game face.

"Alright, let's go get this over with."

"Get this over w...?" Tooth blinked and shook her head a little. "Jack, wait."

The brunette stopped and turned back to look at her. His blank but calculating stare made her uncomfortable – how was it that even though she'd admitted to Edmund (and herself long ago) that she liked this guy, but he still made her nervous sometimes?

She frowned as he waited for her answer.

"How did you...How did you snap out of it?" she asked about the bleeding effect.

She'd wanted to ask him since he first spoke, but with Edmund abruptly leaving, her head was more wrapped around losing their new friend. Jack blinked and looked at the river in the distance.

He shook his head.

"I don't know," he said low and honest. "I really don't."

"..."

He rubbed his head.

"I just...When we were back in the field and you caught that paper–"

"I know, I know I'm sorry–"

"No, you didn't see," he stopped her and threw a hand out. "I saw this...I felt this _w__ave_ wash over me."

Tooth's eyebrows lifted.

"A-A wave?" and he nodded. He remembered how cold and violent the blue flashed over everything, like a flourish of snow.

"And when it was gone, all the people I knew from my memories started appearing."

"The bleeding effect," she mumbled and he nodded.

But he didn't dare mention the broken wonderland...her face was already too much for him to handle.

"But what about now?" she asked, her face painted with deep concern. "D-Do you see anyone?"

Jack shook his head.

"That's the other thing...When I scared you guys," he paused and threw her an almost apologetic look, "it was because I got hit with another. And they all went away."

Tooth's heart raced.

"They did? Wh–"

"The second wave I got hit with, it...it didn't hurt. It was slow and gentle...like a ripple."

After he explained, Jack made a sweeping motion with his hand. The wind weaved itself through his fingers and Tooth couldn't help but look down at the snowflakes that wanted to dance with him.

Suddenly he narrowed his eyes.

"And I think...it's because my gene knew...It's connected to this place. It _knows_ I'm in the right place."

Tooth licked her lips. As he dropped his hand the snowflakes drifted away, she lifted her head to look at his face in the pale moonlight.

"A-Are you sure?" she dared to ask. Jack tightened his hold on his backpack.

"No," he answered and looked back at her too. "But that's all we've got."

And before he moved, Jack actually lifted his hand to cover both his eyes. He sighed before he turned away to the empty road. Aster's tires left tracks in the snow and with a powerful undersweep, Jack used his gene to sweep the snow from the field onto the road far enough that it would cover the tires and make it seem like they'd been made hours ago instead of minutes. That was the only help he could give back to the racing Australian now.

Then Jack moved and walked closer towards the sign. He missed the way Tooth's face cracked a little as her heart twisted in her chest.

...

_5:42 a.m._

When they were both standing in front of the sign, Tooth hugged herself for warmth. She watched Jack step directly up to the post to put his hand against it.

Jack's eyes were still hard and focused as he trailed his white fingertips down the smooth metal. He traced some of the lines and words before he pulled away. With a set jaw, he rubbed his fingers together. Then he looked around it and knelt at the support beams to knock them with his knuckle.

Tooth smacked her lips thoughtfully.

She thought it was sorta weird that he was doing all that when they should've started walking into the town already. But it _was_ Jack and he _was_ a spy – it was in his nature to scrutinize every detail.

And with his memories needing a kick-start, she realised the more scrutinizing, the better.

"Ma-Maybe you should check those rocks too?"

Jack turned his head up at Tooth surprisingly. Her small form was shivering slightly but she had the same anxious look as him. He saw her tiny glove (where it was clutching her bag) lift up to point on their right. When he turned, he saw the head of a smooth stone peeking out under the snow.

Jack nodded and stood up, walking toward it.

How she'd figured that was anyone's guess but she was right.

And oddly enough, Jack felt like the stone actually _was_ calling him out to him.

His frown still on his face, Jack made a few steps toward it. He stopped when it got caught just under his shadow.

Jack's memory of the night they ditched came back. It was still sorta blurry but he realised it was longer, and for the first time...

...he could _actually _hear it more clearly too...

* * *

_Jack watched as a small door slid open with a deep _shuuurk!

_Immediately, two men who had been sitting on either side of him jumped out. They were dressed in casual sweaters and jeans ...but he had a feeling they only did that to make sure they looked like regular guys to anyone who might catch a glimpse of them._

"_We're clear!" one of them whispered quietly after they did a quick scout. "We're clear!"_

"_Well, pull him out! Pull him OUT!"_

_Jack tried to move his mouth but it wasn't moving. Just like his fingers, and his entire body. Who were they pulling out? Him? And who was the guy that spoke behind him?! Wh–_

_The two men quickly moved back to the door and grabbed each of his legs. As they did, the person behind him also lifted him up from under his armpits._

_Jack tried to gasp but it only came out as a short exhale. His lips were still frozen._

_The three guys then shifted hurriedly and moved Jack through the door. Once his head passed over the threshold, the wind slapped his cheek and threw his hair up. It was really windy night that night. _

_And it was also really__ bright since the moon blurred everything he was trying to see..._

* * *

Tooth watched Jack kneel on one foot into the snow again.

She was glad he was taking what little help she could give. It was all about him right now and she didn't want to mess up by not doing what she could – which also included waiting.

So she zipped her lips shut and let him do his thing.

Jack glared at the tip of the rock for a moment before he lifted his head. He then stared at the road they'd just come from, still trying to re-imagine the memory.

* * *

_Jack's head bobbed violently as the guys walked into the snow. When his head fell sideways and his vision tilted behind him, one of them stopped._

"_Hey, easy! _EASY!"_ he hissed. "His brain just went through a _fucking meltdown!_ You think you could stop shaking whatever's left in there?!"_

"_Psh, there _is _nothing left," the other guy snapped scornfully. "Why d'you think he gets to go h–"_

_But Jack didn't hear the rest because he tried to gasp again when his neck bent too far backwards. _

"Jesus,_ seriously?! Careful for that rock! It almost hit his–"_

_The guy carrying him __stumbl__ed all of them into a freeze so he could lift Jack's head forward again. But by then, Jack had already seen where they'd come from – there was black van on a dirt road with the side door opened. It was still running..._

* * *

Jack rubbed his scalp and flicked his blue eyes across the road. From one end to the other, it made his skin crawl knowing who and how he'd gotten here.

"A van..."

When he looked down again, he couldn't help but hold his breath.

He lifted his gloved hand over the stone.

Tooth watched him hesitate for a second.

She held her breath too.

Then a second later, he brushed the snow away – at first in quick, nervous strokes then in long, anxious sweeps. Jack's chest tightened as he wiped the whole slate clean. When the snow was all gone, he moved his hand away.

The rock was long, flat, and a little slanted...It reminded him of a pillow.

* * *

"_We can't put him to close to the road or someone will–"_

_When they passed a groundhog's den they all (even Jack through his impaired vision) sow something furry stick __its__ head out to look at him._

"_Well, nothing _human_ will__, at least for a day__. Nobody drives out of town on Christmas–"_

"_Shut up,__ you two!" the guy behind him barked. "Let's just find a spot where we can leave him...okay?"_

_The two didn't say a word after – they hated to admit how bad that sentence sounded too. Jack saw the shadows of their heads move around in the moonlight._

"_Can't leave him directly in the snow," one muttered. "It'll cover him up."_

"_He's need some kind of elevation then. But these rocks'll–"_

"_Wait, over there!"_

* * *

Jack's frown deepened. Despite himself, he lifted his hand again and touched the stone.

He pressed it until his palm was flat against the smooth, cold rock.

* * *

"_Ease him down gently...Yeah, there."_

_Jack was instantly terrified as he felt his body lower. The faces were blurred out by the moonlight and the constant moving of their bodies. But he knew the feeling creeping into his chest the minute his __head __was resting on something hard and cold – abandonment._

_He tried to move his lips, his eyes, his eyebrows, anything to get them to notice him. But they weren't seeing him._

"_Wait," one of them panicked. "Can he...Can he see us? His eyes aren't closed."_

"_Partially, but he's been known to do that."_

_Jack saw all three of their heads turn to his. He could feel their eyes on him even though he couldn't see it. Then one of them shook his head._

"_No, that's how they all look," another corrected him. "He's asleep though, it's part of the process."_

_Jack's heart raced under the turtleneck and winter coat they'd dressed him in. He wanted to say that he was ALREADY awake, that he COULD see them, and that–_

"_Don't worry though," they kept talking. "He'll wake up in a bit and he'll know where to go. That's why he's one of the lucky ones who made it out. The doctors did his right."_

_Jack's eyelids wouldn't even flutter. Go where? Made it out? Did his WHAT right?_

_Jack put his other fist against his mouth. He suddenly found it hard to breathe._

_He really had heard that conversation as he was being dragged but...but why hadn't he remembered being carried or them speaking until now? When he woke up all he remembered was–_

_The guys didn't move for a second and it looked (and felt) like they were staring at him, the same way the scientists had. Then someone mumbled again._

"_Good luck, buddy. W...Sorry..."_

_A few more seconds __later, then__ finally they moved._

"_Okay, let's go!" and in a flash they all stood up. __Jack felt like he__ would throw up and his heart would explode in his chest. He didn't even know who they were, but they knew HIM, and they were going to leave him alone now?! And he didn't KNOW where to go!_

_Jack tried everything but he couldn't control anything except his tight breathing._

_And in his distress, they all hopped over him and ran to the left. Jack couldn't even turn his head, but he knew where they were going._

_A moment later, he heard the van door slam shut and the tires screech away._

_Then he was alone, until his heart slowed and his eyes remained glued in place._

* * *

Jack moved his hand away and stood up instantly. He turned back to the sign.

'_Welcome to Burgess'..._the words were really starting to drive nails into his head.

Tooth watched him tilt his head. He looked as if he still wasn't getting it.

"...Anything?"

He didn't look at her but his head tilted down again slightly which meant he heard her. She shook her head a little.

"...You still don't recognize it?"

"I..."

The wind blew passed them on its own stream and lifted her bangs little. When it tossed itself over to caress his cheekbones, he turned around slowly.

Jack eyed the road instead. Before Tooth could speak, his head turned back down to the stone.

"...I never did."

Then Jack suffered another relapse from the bleeding effect – and with a hurt-filled gaze, Jack saw himself.

He saw himself...lying on the stone.

The rock was keeping his head away from the snow and he was gasping for cold air in his lungs.

It looked like he'd been there for hours – and Jack remembered that it _had_ been for a long time before he could move his body again.

The Jack on the ground had finally turned his head and was looking up at the sign. His eyes wouldn't stop reading until the feeling came back to his arms and legs.

When they did, Jack watched himself struggle to sit up then stand on his own two feet. It took him a couple tries not to lean sideways but when he finally got it, his mouth hung open in shock.

He watched himself look down at his pale, white hands in stunned wonder, remembering what he thought then...

'_Why didn't I freeze to death?'_

He should've died in the cold that night but his skin hadn't turned blue and his lips weren't shivering – he'd felt almost comfortable. The thought had made him press his hand to the back of his head.

Then he watched himself turn and look up at the sign against the clear sky. He mouthed the words to himself...

Why...Burgess? _What _was Burgess? _Where_ was Burgess?

Jack didn't know the town, didn't recognise the name. And it had spooked him until he backed away from the sign and rubbed his head.

He didn't want to walk down the road and go there. For all he knew, the guys who ditched him left him in an area where all these strange people might do weird things to him. And even if that wasn't the case...they'd said it was Christmas tomorrow.

_Christmas._ As in happy families getting up in the morning to celebrate, not wanting to see some creeped out...how _old_ was he anyway?

Jack watched himself look down with a confused look. When the other Jack looked back up, his face was grim and he continued to walk backwards.

'_No,'_ he remembered thinking.

They'd dumped him in this ditch for a reason which meant people weren't supposed to see him. People didn't do that unless the person they were ditching had something to hide...or worse, were potentially dangerous. So Jack decided to walk away from the sign, from Burgess and whoever the heck was in there. It wasn't like he'd felt any sort of attachment to it.

The sign did nothing for him. It was just a place.

He'd walk down the road and find another place to get help, to ask for answers. And he wasn't cold so the long, lonely walk would maybe clear his head and keep him from being seen by people.

And when the back of his feet hit the road, he turned and stumbled away, completely disturbed by what had just happened to him.

He never thought of going back once until it was completely gone from his mind.

And Jack watched until the other Jack with the hunched shoulders and white hair faded away.

Then he turned back to Tooth.

Toothiana stood there silent and shivering. The wind blew her hair in her face but he caught her dark pink eyes through them anyway. She looked worried.

She was still waiting for his answer.

He knitted his eyebrows together.

"Remember when you asked why I never came back?"

She nodded her head then tucked her chin into her scarf to keep the wind out.

"It's because I never remembered it after I left," and he stepped away from the stone and walked back to her.

"I remembered _that,_" he pointed to the stone. "But not where it was, because I didn't care."

She immediately looked back up at him.

"Your POA," she mumbled as she looked at the stone. Jack looked at her confused. When she blinked, he looked away.

"...And I was afraid."

Tooth's eyebrows shot up.

He finally said...to her...to _her._

But more importantly...to _himself._

Her mouth opened and closed sadly. But then he continued.

"I...It wasn't made clear if I was even _from_ here – people in the next town didn't recognise me and I sure as hell didn't recognise them. So if you think about it, this might not even _be_ my hometown! I know didn't _what_ was in there, what was waiting for me, so I..." Jack ran a hand through his hair. "So I bolted before anyone came."

Tooth turned her head back down the road that led into the forest. It _did_ look pretty ominous with all the tall, pine trees protecting the frontline.

"But not this time."

Jack was looking at the trees too.

"Back then I didn't have a purpose, or a reason to go in," then he looked down at her. "But now I do."

Tooth would be lying if she said her skin didn't grow a little flustered from his words and heavy gaze. But she pushed it aside almost instantly when the fire came back to her chest.

Jack watched her jaw tighten and her eyes catch light. She nodded.

"I've got your back," she murmured. "Whatever or _whoever's_ in there waiting for you, I'm right here."

And he remembered her voice in the Judgement Room just before he broke down.

* * *

_I'M RIGHT HERE!_

* * *

And he couldn't be more grateful.

"I know," and Jack shot her a tiny smile. "Thanks."

And she shot him one back, feeling the band around her chest vanish slightly. It felt like three hundred years had passed since she'd seen his last one.

Jack then turned towards the sign and after one more read, he grabbed Tooth's leather glove with his own. The two then walked through the last of the snow and onto the road leading into the trees.

They were silent, their hearts were racing and their grips were tight, and they hoped the bleeding effect (and Jack's wonderland) wouldn't come back.

But they didn't have to worry...he would still get flashbacks, but the Jack that had walked down the road alone was the last ghost he'd ever see again.

With one last ripple effect over the snow, his center gene made sure of it.

...

_6:13 a.m._

They cringed every time their boots crunched gravel and ice...and their breaths were shaky, although Tooth's puffs of air came out larger than Jack's...but they were in awe once they finally broke the treeline.

Jack had opted to let Tooth link arms with him halfway through the road so they would stay warmer. He didn't know why but it was like he was _actually_starting to the feel the cold again through his skin the closer they got to the end of the road.

Once their shoes hit a railroad track that ran sideways over the road, they stopped.

Burgess wasn't the scary, little village they'd been mentally preparing for.

It was..._absolutely stunning._

Beyond the pedestrian path and the intersection up ahead, the road did a sloping effect and they could see the entire town lit up by its streetlamps, traffic lights, and various Christmas lights. Large, breathtaking mountains in the distance covered in pine trees protected it from behind.

All the shops and businesses (huddled at Burgess' base in the distance) were closed for the holidays and the homes and buildings scattered around them had their lights out. It was like everyone had really committed to the Christmas spirit and wanted to rest that night – that, or their kids were being extra good and didn't want to stay up to spy on Santa. On the left, a piece of the mighty Lehigh River they had seen back out on the main road had broken away to make a beautiful bend along Burgess' left before it curved again to go back and join the rest of the river. Several small boats belonging to families and businesses were docked there for the winter. On the right, the train track passed them and went through the central part of the city to a small station near the other end.

And like a perfect Hallmark moment, _everything_ was covered in snow.

Tooth pushed the back of her fingers against her mouth to stop a squeal form coming out.

"_Wow..." _

Even Jack was surprised.

"I really wish I had a camera right now," he mumbled and she nodded. Then he suddenly felt guilty.

Burgess wasn't a bad place after all. Sure, it was a quiet, little town that looked like it didn't get much action but it was still well taken care of.

He could see with his keen eyes how much love the people here put into their little world surrounded by the pines. The roads were clean and shovelled, the cars were safely parked and basically asleep for the night, and–

He squinted his eyes suddenly.

Far down in the distance, he saw a pair of headlights turn at another intersection and drive up the other way. His grip instantly tightened on Tooth.

Her little dream bubble popped instantly and she looked at him. All her thoughts about a winter wonderland and drinking hot chocolate again left her head.

"What?" she whispered. She was almost afraid to speak because Burgess was perfect in all its silence.

He flit his blue eyes over her head.

Now that they were alone again, she realised that if Jack slipped into a broken state again, she wouldn't have anyone strong enough to pry his fingers from her throat.

'_Don't say it like that, Tooth,'_ she fretted and when she shook her head she threw him a gentle smile.

"We shouldn't be seen walking the main streets," he mumbled. "People shouldn't know we're here."

And on pure instinct, he moved around her and tugged her along over the tracks, going down some street on the right. When they were behind a building, his lips moved on their own.

"There's a park on this side and the rest of the neighbourhoods fan out behind it so we shou–"

He stopped.

He got another memory, this time long again and more clear...even the people's faces weren't blurry.

* * *

_It was three days after New Years. _

_Jack was wandering through the streets of California. He'd just left some bar and wanted to get some fresh air. _

_When he hit a corner and was ready to cross the street, a group of college girls still on break and dressed to party passed his line. They instantly whistled and shot him flirty looks. Jack was more than happy shooting them a sexy smirk. They started to pause on themselves as they turned to face him. _

_This was the best, being twenty-something and so okay, he didn't know where he came from and what he was doing with himself. But he had all the free time in the world to do whatever he wanted._

_They told him his hair was awesome, thinking it was some kind of holiday stunt he pulled for the winter. Jack nonchalantly thanked them, although a part of them – a sudden, cold part of him – wanted them to mind their own business. He instantly shoved it down. That had been happening a lot lately and he needed to control it._

_The girls were more than comfortable enough asking him if he wanted to join them for dancing. They were walking to a nearby open pit where all the music was coming from._

"_So join us! Join us!" they each laughed genuinely and he laughed when two grabbed each of his hands and tried to pull him forward. "We promise we won't ask you for sex or anything! We're classier than that!"_

_And Jack chuckled as he felt his fingers twitch and a cool breeze hit the collar of his blue button-up. _

"_Good to know."_

"_Oh! But you need a Christmas name first!"_

_Jack paused and laughed. __"__What kind of dance you goin' to?"_

"_No, not for the dance! For the contest!" one of girls chuckled. "The holiday names with the most number of people get a prize! And the ones without get one too for being unique!"_

"_So WE'RE all going as Vixen! Santa's __eight__h reindeer," one cheered and the other seven rolled their eyes._

_One of the girls leaned in and jerked a thumb at her. "_Her _idea, but her birthday's tomorrow so we caved."_

_And Jack chuckled and shoved his hands into his pockets._

"_Sexy," he smirked and they all sorta melted a little inside. Then two laughed and nodded._

"_So come on, join us for a dance or two! Or at least help us win!"_

_And Jack immediately threw up his hands with a laugh. "Hey, I'm not a vixen!"_

"_Oh yeah?" another girl put her hands on her hips. "Then who are you?"_

_Jack put down his hands and looked at the ground, pretending to think for a moment. Then after a moment, he lifted his head and he ran a hand through his hair. _

"_I'm Jack," and a mischievous smile was on his face. "Jack Frost."_

_..._

_The pit was loud and pumping and he got swept up in the beat more times than he could count. He danced with each 'Vixen', a 'Holly', a 'Mistletoe' here and there, and even a couple 'Mrs. Clauses' until __he realised it__ was well over three hours into the mix._

_But after the umpteenth song played, he started to feel trapped in the sea of people. He didn't know why or what was happening, normally his energy was always on high and he loved to have fun._

_But something about the hundreds of faces he kept spinning into made him dizzy, made him lost – and he instantly remembered the __night when he__ 'woke up' a week ago._

_His heart started to race. He almost didn't realise when the DJ stopped playing abruptly and the MC started to announce which group had one for most names – Santa was the obvious, most uncreative, winner and a swarm of about thirty guys and the odd number of girls jumped on stage and cheered. _

_Then the MC moved on to the '__Most Creative', and much to the college girls' disappointment, the team of twelve who called themselves the 'Stars of Bethlehem' won the title._

_He heard the girls he'd come with pout a little before they clapped and decided the winning team actually _did_ make up the better name. _

_He suddenly felt bad for them since they were genuinely nice. Yet just as h__e was about to lean over and pat the girl closest to him on the back, something flashed before his eye._

_**He was pulling out the weird contacts case in his pockets. It was only thing he'd woken up with in the snow and when he opened it, it said "CODENAME JACK FROST"...Then he was gasping for air in the snow again – then suddenly he saw gun in his face.**_

_When the memory vanished, __Jack __froze but no one saw it. "What the hell?" He pressed his hand against his jeans pocket...it was still there._

_He panicked, he didn't know what that was or why but suddenly all the cold, empty feelings of being alone again from the night in the snow came back. He grew sick, he started to shake slightly and he needed to get out of the crowd._

_And finally, the MC came to honorable mention for that one, unique name._

"_Alright my little, hot Christmas cookies, now give it up for the only one of y'all that actually signed up as this cool boy...Give it up for Jack Frost!"_

_And the crowd immediately cheered and clapped. That _was _super clever! Why the _heck_ didn't anyone remember Jack Frost? _

"_Where's my home boy at?" the MC laughed. "Jack Frost, you get your ass on this stage so we can all see you!"_

_And the girl who'd stood beside him spun her head. "Jack, you _won!_ Y–"_

_But the space was empty and he was gone._

"_Where's Jack?"  
"Where's Jack Frost?"  
"Which one of you is Jack Frost?"  
"Is it you?""Is it you?"  
"I repeat, Jack Frost! Come on boy, don't be shy! Get up here!"_

_But the more they kept saying and chanting his name, Jack shoved himself harder through the crowd until he was out. The girls never saw him again._

_And they'd never know that was his real name, his only name, or at least...the name he'd been given._

_Really early the next morning when he went to buy a bus ticket for Nevada, __the three FBI agents he would later kill by accident cornered him at the alleyway._

_After that, fun for Jack Frost went irrevocably downhill._

_Sure, he had a couple homes, extremely short-term loves, and a couple laughs, but he had an international arrest him that kept him in the shadows...but at least he had the freakish survival skills of a ninja._

* * *

Tooth's mouth fell open and he shot her the same wide-eyed look.

"You know about a park here?" she said. "B-But you said you'd never been here."

Jack shook his head, still shocked with himself too.

"I haven't."

And Tooth tightened her tiny hand around his arm. "Come on."

She pulled him down the road instead.

...

_6:23 a.m._

The further they walked into Burgess, the more Jack's mouth fell open. His body was reacting to things he _swore_ he'd never seen in his life.

There was a diner they'd passed on the way and suddenly he had a craving for maple waffles. Next, they crossed the town library – it was dead and sorta creepy, but his elbow started to throb like he remembered having a bad fall in there that was worth getting an arm cast for. _Then_, they whizzed past an auto repair shop and Jack was _sure_ he could smell petroleum oil and his fingers itched for a motorcycle handbrake.

'_It's like I'm suffering from some damn __synaesthesia,' _he thought nervously. His brain was just mixing all his signals, all his senses, and he was seeing things, feeling things, hell, even _smelling _things. His fingers twitched again.

What was _wrong_ with him?

When they passed a glass window, he even looked over Tooth's head to stare at his reflection. His eyes looked haunted and his shoulders were slightly hunched forward...

...Just like the Jack who got up and walked away.

He instantly pulled his shoulders back.

It was all so warped to him, having these sensations but not recognizing this place – but the more his body reacted, the more flashbacks he got.

* * *

_(Луна)__"Welcome to the big leagues now," a big guy said and he slid a large envelope across the table to Jack. _

_Jack was already in his Takedown Unit uniform and picked up the envelope with his glove. As he and the other four new team leaders opened their own packages, they each pulled the enlarged photo of their criminal only __two inches out of the slot__ – as they supposed to do._

_Just by the curve of his eyebrow, they all froze with anxieties mounting._

"_Pitch Black," one of the female team leaders seethed. She looked absolutely calm but all the people in the room were trained in elite physical scrutiny. They heard her breath falter just a degree under normal, her right eyelid fluttered, her fist tightened, and that one muscle near the center of her cheek twitched the slightest._

_She basically had history with this man before and failed, and this was chance to redeem herself._

"_Ugh, he's creepy," another leader on Jack's left grumbled. Their handler laughed darkly._

"_It's the eyes, huh?"_

"_Does that mean he was a–"_

"_Three hours ago, his men killed sixteen of Italy's __AISE agents and__ stole a cargo of VX they'd rescued eight hours earlier in Naples__.__ They were transporting it to __back to Florence b__ut our GUARDIANs over there saw them use this–"_

_And he pressed the giant touchscreen in the centre of their table to __enlarge__ an image. It showed the Nightmares spraying the street with black soot and disappearing behind it._

"_When our agents pursued, they __were poisoned...VX had already been used and was lacing the compound they sprayed the streets with."_

"_Well, did you ask them?" another female leader asked. "They must remember something now if they've been ta–"_

"_They're dead, agent."_

_Ever__yone kept their mouth shut as he narrowed his eyes._

"_VX is a deadly nerve toxin, you all know this...But it was _also_ laced with something that affected their centres. And turned it against them. So you understand why this mission is important, correct?"_

_And they all nodded._

_(Portuguese) "Estamos nisto juntos," one guy on Jack's right said. "We're in this together."_

"_Exactly," the handler agreed. "If this affects one GUARDIAN, it affects us all."_

"_Well, then let's use an aerial pursuit tracker," Jack said, dead calm as always. He crossed his arms and leaned back analysing the photo for irregularities. "Can we flag air traffic control and initiate a search __bar __over the last twelve hours?"_

_Their handler nodded._

"_Best course of action we can take on a world known terrorist, but it's not __easy...He__ wipes his tracks. That's why you five disperse and see what you can find. Meet with your teams once you land and start finding the potholes."_

_They __all nodded. And after__ closing their envelopes they all got up from their chairs and rushed out..._

* * *

Jack said nothing as he and Tooth rushed down the east wide of Burgess. They kept to the shadows of the buildings and jaywalked at practically every intersection. Several times Tooth slipped on ice from the sidewalk and Jack's head twitched when they passed historic buildings sign or a well-lit alley ready for the Christmas morning garbage.

They weren't caught. But the farther in they walked, the more ruthless Jack's memories were–

* * *

"_W__-What's my time?"_

"_12 minutes__ and 7 seconds...Keep it up, Frost."_

_Jack's eyes and face hadn't turned red but his arms were starting to buckle.__ Still, he gritted his teeth and shut his eyes. Perfecting his handstand was always uncomfortable when the scientists had to come and see it for his muscle follow-up–_

"_**100**__ pounds__...175...200..."_

"_Add another."_

"_You sure?"_

"_Yeah."_

_Jack grinded his teeth spread out his feet more as his spotter placed another weight on his back. He was in the training room with some other agents trying to walk on __hi__s core._

_He looked over at Codename: ATLAS though and glared. There was no way he'd ever lift as much as that guy, he wasn't stupid. After three short breaths, Jack pushed his arms higher off the ground until the muscles in his back stretched to their limits. As he controlled his heartbeat, his spotter leaned in and smirked._

"_And whoa, __you've mastered__ that whole no-sweat thing," he commented. "__Between us,__ I'm still struggling."_

_Jack rolled his eyes __but like__ the light conversation. "You should really keep that to yourself, buddy."_

_And the other guy laughed. Jack looked down awkwardly._

"_Alright, alright, Ice boy, hurry it up!" he then pulled back and checked Jack's stats on the screen nearby. "You're passin' your record, but you promised GRIMREAPER that you'd help spar in Quarter Room B remember?"_

"_Oh shit."_

_And Jack eased his weight offs and rolled his muscles. He then grabbed his staff off the wall as his partner tossed him his water bottle._

"_Thanks."_

"_And hey, go easy on him! Go easy on_ everyone_ over there with that thing!"_

_Every GUARDIAN had a specific weapon they were best equipped with – and with Jack, his retractable staff, and his agility, he was_ always _the stick up their ass–_

"_**Alright**__ agents,__ you've got a 14-second window before that shaft opens again!" their pilot yelled and Jack pushed his white bangs aside to get a better look at him from __under his ski__ hat. _

"_Yo, Jack hide that thing! You don't want a strand to fall and–"_

"_Why not? Nobody has any DNA or ID on us anymore, remember?"_

_And the guy shut up instantly. A pang of hurt shot through both of them – but Jack was the first to ignore it._

"_Get ready, guys! We're coming over!"_

_Jack got up and stood on his end of the __helicopter. He tightened his weapons belt and loaded his gun before he shoved it into the holster on his thigh then looked down. The wind__ tossed the air up into their faces and he frowned._

"_Jack! Prepare to push that wind away!"_

_"I'm ready!"__ he replied called and he pulled off his glove._

"_Okay, and in three...two..._one!"

_Then Jack stepped off, a violent whooshing rushed against his face but the earplugs blocked out the noise. He saw the heavily guarded center a thousand feet below them and the air shafts big enough to fit a person, right below them._

_Jack and the others pressed their limbs close together to streamline their bodies against the wind. They were slicing through the air while gravity pushed them further downwards. When they were about 500 metres from the building, the shafts opened then closed. Their technical analyst started to talk in his ear._

"_So guys__, that vent just closed. MEANS YOUR FOURTEEN SECONDS START NOW! JACK YOU READY?"_

"_ON IT!" he shouted over the wind and fighting against the current, he pushed his hand outward and flexed his fingers. The wind suddenly parted away from them and they dropped faster without the resistance._

"_NINE SECONDS...EIGHT..."_

_They were still about 450 meters from the center._

"_SEVEN...SIX..."_

_Then only 320 metres!_

"_FIVE..."_

"_JACK!" someone else yelled in his ear. "WE'RE NOT DROPPING FAST ENOUGH! DO SOMETHING!"_

"_FOUR..."_

_And Jack pushed both hands out and twisted his hands up before snapping them down violently. The wind suddenly followed up behind them._

"_THREE..."_

_Then it curved down in a powerful current and __pushed at their heels, driving them down faster._

"_TWO..."_

"_TIGHTEN YOURSELVES, GUYS!" Jack shouted and his team tried their best to move their bodies against the wind. But they'd practiced with Jack a day ago so it worked quickly._

"_ONE..."_

"Winter_ division going in!" And the four of them just made it through the open air shaft of the ceiling before it shut close on them. Then–_

_**SCREECH!**_

_Jack hit the throttle after he completed the drift around the hairpin turn and sped down the racetrack._

_He saw the screaming audience on either side of the underground parking lot cheer when his AMG Roadster hit the finish line first. When he swung the Mercedes-Benz into an impressive park to face the __crowd, he stepped__ out just as his racing rivals crossed the finish line._

_Jack ran a hand through his hair and smirked as he walked forward. Everyone watching was falling over themselves. The energy was high just the way he liked it, the adrenaline was pumping, and best of all, he'd gotten __to use his__ street racing skills to __the test__. And it showed._

"_Well, well, well, my brother, look at you!" the facilitator of the illegal race said as he walked up to Jack with the rest of the losers. He slapped Jack's hand and moved in for a genuine man pat on the back. His Hispanic accent was thick and impressed._

"_Mmhmm__ you really __gotta come__ round again and ride with us sometime! Show these __boys how it's done__ down here in Rio, eh?"_

"_And leave no chance for them?" __And Jack smirked and leaned on one boot. "__Ah, now come one. What kind of man would I be?"_

"_Haha! Bueno, bueno! Well, my prince," and the guy with the gold tooth and rocking chains spread his arm out to the booth on the side. "Your money's in there. Si, well done again, my friend."_

_And Jack moved away from him to walk to the booth to collect the cash, but not before shooting the losing racers a triumphant smirk._

_What __the__ other racers didn't know though was that the money was all counterfeit __– but Jack took it anyway__. _

_Later, when Jack was walking through Rio's streets alone, the same racers who __lost, grabbed__ him and pulled him into a dark alley. The one in charge flashed a knife and shoved Jack against the wall._

"_You damn American punks think you're all that comin' out and taking our races! Well it's not your race. It's ours! So where's the money!?"__ he tried to threaten, by flashing the weapon against Jack's neck. The others were also __pulling out small__ knives too. _

_Jack rolled his eyes but they wouldn't stop talking. They weren't even from Brazil either – they were Korean for Christ's sake! So who were they to talk about comin–_

"_Ey! You look at me when I talk to you!" the guy __snarled__ again. __"S__o answer this time, where _is it?!"

_And Jack's calm and cool expression abruptly turned murderous._

"_Why don't you ask my friends?"_

_Suddenly two headlights turned on and blinded them from the other side of the alley. _

_Five minutes later, Jack and the four others from the __Gunner division __had the goons up against the wall with their o__wn (more dangerous) blades__ and guns at their throats. Jack tightened his glove on his hand as he walked up to the guy who'd tried to stab him with a cold look._

"_Words of advice? Come a little earlier next time," he muttered darkly. "Oh and, I don't answer your questions. _You _answer _mine."

_Then he leaned up and narrowed his brown contact eyes to slits. "And don't you ever think you can outrace me again."_

_And the other GUARDIANs inwardly agreed. The Gunner division had __the __most __naturally gifted street racers in the world – Jack included. So these guys had no clue who they were messing with._

"_Now then," Jack hissed._ "Where's _**Javier?****"**_

* * *

Tooth looked up at him when she felt his arm squeeze hers. He pushed a hand under his bangs unconsciously and paused just the slightest.

When Jack pulled his hand away, he was surprised to feel how damp it was. He really _was_ losing it...he couldn't even control his sweat anymore. He tightened his fist.

Jack didn't know Tooth was watching but by then, she'd seen the distress flash across his face.

And despite wanting to give him as much space as he needed, his arm tightening around hers was a clear cry for support.

So Tooth leaned in closer until her head – thanks to her two-inch boot heels – was resting against his shoulder.

And Jack was grateful.

She started to speak quietly, thinking they should do a...what was the spy word he and Edmund like to use?

Oh yeah, a review. A review of what had happened so far.

"So how are you feeling?" she mumbled as she shivered. She did not want to complain about the cold – but the funny thing was, the more time she spent with Jack, the less she was starting to feel it too.

Unless it was hypothermia. Oh jeez.

Tooth shook her own head at herself. "'Cause we've passed about a three dozen structures but you have said anything."

Jack sighed.

* * *

_"Are you alright, sir?" Jack's voice was light and little more helpful._

_"Y-Yes son, thank you," the foreign services officer stuttered. He'd only come to Brussels to visit the embassy and meet some immigrant families on behalf of the Indian government._

_It turned out horribly wrong as a heist was taking place and his life was suddenly on the line._

_The other agents had escorted the families to safety but Jack and a few of the rest stayed behind to help the officer collect his things and protect him until the clear was given._

_"Am I gonna die?" the officer asked worriedly. He'd never been in this sorta situation before._

_"No! No, you're fine sir," Jack gave him a warm smile and reached over to help him put away his things. Jack had been a spy for about four months now and he could honestly say that all his missions so far were fine. Then again, his assigned duties were to always protect and look after people so he couldn't really complain._

_He was loving this early start to his new career and it meant he could really sink his brain into all the global economics, politics, and cultures he loved so much. Not to mention, all the care he give back to the people trying to help make a difference in so many people's lives._

_When the officer smiled back grateful for his comfort, Jack nodded._

_"Sir, if I may?" Jack asked after a moment of silence. He eyed his other partners, (older and more uptight than he was yet to become) before he leaned over slightly and raised his eyebrows._

_"Do you know where the nearest gift shop is around here?"_

_"The wh–"_

_"I know, I know! Strange question but, I had to ask someone..." then he nudged his head at his team. "And they won't tell me or let me use our map for 'pointless things'."_

_And the officer actually chuckled. This boy was clearly just a spy starting out – he probably wanted memories of being in Germany before they left again. He then leaned back over and pointed out the blacked out window._

_"There's a hotel across the street that has one," he whispered. "Although I imagine they've closed it down because of us and this emergency."_

_And Jack smiled a secret smile. "Thanks sir," he whispered back, then Jack pulled away and pretended like their conversation never happened._

_He hoped he'd find what he wanted for her._

* * *

"Argh!"

Tooth stopped walking after his frozen state yanked her back like a tether ball. She looked up at him worriedly.

"What's wrong?"

"These memories, they..." he sighed angrily, his face still hard and cold. He rubbed his eye.

When he opened them, he realised that they passed the park already and they'd already hit the residential part of Burgess so fast. But how?

And _why_ were his memories all still from his days as a spy? Why not from old life yet?! He was standing in what was potentially his hometown and he couldn't get a clue yet if it really _was_ where he was from.

"This is ridiculous," he finally growled and removed himself from Tooth. He covered his eyes angrily.

"The memories _aren't_ coming back, Tooth!"

"Yes they will, Jack!" she argued. "North and Edmund said–"

"But how come all I keep reliving are my days as an agent? As a GUARDIAN?"

And right on cue–

* * *

"_How fast are you, Jack?" the criminal grinned and Jack glared murderously._

"_Here, try to catch this!"_

_And an apple was tossed to him. Jack lifted his left palm to catch it unimpressed–_

_BANG!_

"_H-Haa–AAHHH!"_

_The boys laughed as Jack screamed and brought his left hand to cradle against his chest. He leaned over in silent pain but the blood from the bullet that shot through his palm was excruciating._

"_What happened, superspy?!" they jeered and taunted, "We thought you said you were quick enough! Hahaha!"_

"_AARGH!" The scar would forever be a reminder of the first mission he failed._

* * *

Jack's scar under his glove suddenly burned and he pulled it away from his face.

He looked down at it almost angrily before he looked around Burgess.

"Tooth, how will I know who I am until I figure out who I _was?!_"

He suddenly wanted her light back, the floating ball of energy that guided him through his pain and out of the darkness. He wanted to cup her in his hands again and–

Jack nearly shouted.

"I...I don't _have_ anyone here! It's just a place! It's not my–"

"B-But what about Emma?"

Jack froze.

He spun and turned to Tooth.

"What did you say?" he said barely above a whisper. Tooth shook like a leaf but her lips kept moving.

"Y-You kept calling out for...for...but that's what you kept saying! _Emma!"_

His mouth grew dry.

"E...Em..."

He'd never heard himself _say_ it. Not out loud, but god knows since they left the company and drove down to Burges, that name...whoever's its was, kept bouncing around in his head.

"E..." his tongue kept stopping every time he tried again.

* * *

_The curtains were drawn halfway but the lightning outside still sent a flash through the hotel room. Jack __sat at the edge of the bed __with his hands weaved together under his chin. He'd washed his hands three times, but it still felt like their blood was under his fingernails._

_When the thunder hit, he shut his eyes. In its deep rumble, he heard the echo of her scream._

_A tear threatened to show itself before he brushed it away like it was nothing. _

_H__e then angrily pulled out his contacts before he went to sleep._

* * *

Tooth frowned as she watched him struggle.

"Who is she, Jack?" she asked. "Come on...who's Emma?"

Tooth didn't feel jealous anymore the more she kept saying the girl's name. She cared more about his feelings than hers and right now, Jack's were hurting and it was tearing her apart.

And if Emma was the only person who could heal that, then she'd do anything, _say_ anything to help him.

"You gotta remember her Jack," she said with a determined fire and touched his arm. "She's important to you, and she's the only one that can help!"

"But I–" and his tongue caught in his mouth again.

He suddenly smelled syrup again and thought for a moment that he was standing in his pyjamas and his socks.

**"**_**Your shirt, you big dummy! Haha you got–"**_

**"**_**Hey!"**_

And he heard himself laugh. _**"Do you two want this or not?!"**_

Jack squeezed his eyes shut and gritted his teeth.

A second later, Tooth nudged him gently. "Hey!"

He opened his eyelids just a peek and looked around, trying to find her. But every streetlight turned into a flash and he'd see something else.

Like a tree and the world hanging upside down...

...or a splash on a lakeshore and the smell of a barbeque...

...or old books and the name of a professor on a desk.

"Tooth?" he muttered. When he pressed a knuckle to cover his eyes so the flashes would stop, she shook her head.

"Don't fight it," she ordered softly. "Don't fight them."

"But they–"

"No, Jack!"

He bent his head down when a pretty bad memory felt like it smacked him in the back of the head.

But Tooth continued.

"Just _accept _them. Don't shut them out...and don't shut me out!"

And he paused because she knew him so well.

Jack usually wanted to breeze her off when she ordered him to do something. But this time, hearing the princess in her tone and sighed through his nostrils. He tried to squint them open.

"So come on, keep your eyes open..._wide open_." Tooth watched him like a hawk. "You need to."

And Jack fluttered his eyes several times until they were well above his irises. Tooth watched his pupils squint on its own. Whatever he was seeing really _was_ blinding him.

"All the way, mister! Come on!"

And Jack sighed angrily before he shut his eyes one more time. Then his eyelids flew open, wide and accepting.

And when he did...

"T...Toothiana?..._Tooth?_"

But she was gone.

And so was the snow, the Christmas...and _everything._

...

_6:39 a.m._

Burgess was bright and it looked like it was the beginning of springtime. Cars drove up and down the road between him and there were people out and about.

He spun on his heel and took it all in. The shops and windows were open and there was so much noise for the small but beautiful town.

It was Burgess, the way it was...the way it should've been.

But when he turned around again, it disappeared and he felt himself running.

The streets transformed into a wooded area. Jack felt himself turn his head back around and while he and a group of kids left behind a neighbourhood in the distance. They dashed further into the woods.

**"**_**Race ya!"**_ his voice was so high and young and he was wearing his favourite pair of red sneakers.

Hold on..._did_ he have a favourite pair of sneakers?

No, he didn't.

...Wait, yes he did.

He did!

The ones his–

**"**_**You're on!"**_ another kid barked and they all sprinted faster. It wasn't hard for Jack to remember that the boy on his left always liked to put his hat backwards, and the girl behind them never tied her shoes in class so the teacher always made her stay late to practice. He also remembered the other two friends were always arguing but everyone teased they'd be married someday.

Then Jack turned his head back to the forest in front of him...and he felt himself age suddenly.

He was still running, but he was growing.

Jack felt his lungs breathe deeper, his heart beat stronger, his legs grow longer.

From eight, to eleven, to fifteen, to seventeen, then finally...

**"**_**Hahaha, Jack slow down!" **_someone laughed right into his ear as he piggybacked her down the beaten dirt path. He chuckled.

**"**_**Why? You scared?"**_

Whoever it was started shaking their head and long hair smacked him in the cheek.

**"_No way! I can go wayy faster than you!"_**

**"_You think so, huh?"_**

**"_I KNOW so!"_**

**"**_**Alright then, little lady!"**_

Jack's forehead creased. "Little lady?"

Then he felt himself lower whoever it was sitting on his shoulders. He heard himself laugh.

**"**_**Prove it!"**_

And she dashed passed him before he could see her face into the warm forest growth.

**"_Come on, Jack! Follow me!"_**

**"**_**WAIT!"**_

And he shot out a hand for her stop but she was like a rocket taking off for the moon. He shook his head and his heart swelled before he kicked the dirt up under his trainers and chased after her. They ran through the trees and up a slight incline to a spot in the forest that couldn't be seen from below.

By the time he was going full speed, she had already reached the top of the hill. When he looked up to call her name, the afternoon sunlight was hanging just in front of her and it blinded him.

He laughed when she used the light to her advantage and disappeared over the hill.

Then–

**"–**_**gent, you should you're the first ever to disco–But she's...then me! Let it–So let's offer...But what if I...can I ever–You know what that does to–So no...Not ever–"**_

* * *

_The scientists were moving around the labs and stations like nothing was wrong. But a week earlier, they'd been trained by the board upstairs to hide their anxieties and pretend like they were going about their regular business._

_That way, when the GUARDIAN agents came in one by one, none of them would suspect._

_Jack was one of the last. He came in __with a slight__ smile and waved to __some of__ the doctors he'd come to know over the last couple months. They waved back politely, but the second he passed them, their faces fell. Jack didn't __know it, but that__ was the last time he'd ever see them again._

_But how could he? _

_He thought he was going in for another routine checkup. Every month, GUARDIANs had to check in with the scientists to make sure __the__ir centers was stable and to report any new abilities or physical changes they gained or lost. Few had major scares like that and Jack was perfectly healthy, more than most in fact. His low body temperature made him less susceptible to sickness and he went out on more missions than regular GUARDIANs – then again, he was recently upgraded to team leader so that might've explained it. His mission to search for Pitch was still going and he couldn't wait that after this Bio-Op was done that he could go back out there with his team and look for the bastard. _

_Too bad this follow up was different._

_After they asked him the same questions they asked every time (how he performed, how he felt, how many days he went without eating or sleeping), they finally told him some new information. _

"_We have a new treatment that we want all the GUARDIANs to use," one of the four scientists said as Jack sat on the edge of the medical table. He had already taken off the top half of his uniform so one of them could perform dialysis on his heart and check his physicals. He raised an eyebrow at the man in front of him._

"_Oh."_

_Jack sounded surprised and when the scientist next to him told him to inhale, Jack shut his eyes and heaved a steady breath. His white hair and pale white skin __w__ere blinding them in the room but when he opened his blue eyes, the scientist nodded and pulled away. Jack continued._

"_Is it supposed to help with our performance?" he asked. "Because __honestly, I feel__ fine."_

_"Nothing you have to worry about,"__ another scientist said casually, trying to throw off Jack's wary look. It didn't really work – Jack's suspicions spiked just a little higher and he squinted his eyes._

"_Well, what's it for?"_

"_It's just to help stimulate the Center Gene if you __guys slip out of consciousness__," the other explained and waved the __small, orange__ biotic vial in his hand. "You've heard the stories of what you guys do when you're out, you know?"_

_And Jack bit the inside of his cheek. _

_Oh yeah, he knew. Well, not personally._

_His gene never made a mess when he got knocked out. Sure, people said the wind picked up or the air got colder but at least he didn't leave craters in the ground or set off electronic fields with his mind. When he imagined how many GUARDIANs got screwed by their own Centers he smirked and rubbed his head._

"_Yeah, that's true," he finally admitted and looked at him. "Okay well sure, load me up. I don't want cause a hurricane next time I get knocked out or something."_

_And they all chuckled and told him to lie down. As he settled himself and looked sideways over at the table across the room, he missed their heartbroken gazes before it disappeared from their faces._

_Jack Frost may have been one of the (no pun intended) colder agents they had to deal with, but he was genuinely nice and always tried to make their jobs a little easier. They were really going to miss him, much like they'd miss the rest...from whatever happened after tonight._

_They were going to hell for what they were about to do, and there was nothing they could do about it._

"_So..." Jack asked again as he turned his head back to __them.__ One of them came over to attach wires to his chest to 'check his heart rate and epidermal scans'. When he saw it, he raised an eyebrow. _

_All _this_ for a simple needle?_

"_Uh, are you sure this new procedure is safe?"_

"_Don't worry, Jack. It's still just your follow up and a quick injection. Then you can go back out there, kay?"_

_And he said nothing as they started doing their thing._

_Suddenly, they__ put a hospital gown around his neck to cover his chest and his whole body._

"_Wh...Wait, the heck are you guys doi–"_

"_It's nothing, honest!" one of the scientists said and jerked a thumb at the one in the back reading a tablet with all of Jack's brain chemistry and cognitive composition on it. "Ben is just paranoid."_

"_I heard that!"_

_Jack rolled his eyes and settled himself further onto the metal table. He didn't want to say it, but he always heated the smell of medical things – the __table,__ medicine, anaesthesia, and all the things related to a sterile and stark environment._

"_Okay, Jack," and suddenly they were all standing around him with calm looks. Their gazes didn't __bother him._

"_Count back from _Desyat _and it'll be over, kay?"_

_Jack sighed but nodded his head politely._

_GAURDIANs always had to count back from 10 in Russian when they were getting weird shots or biotics. It was protocol but he guessed since the founders were Russian they just wanted to stick it to every other culture in the program._

_He shut his eyelids halfway to block out most of the white light._

"_Desyat...Devyat...Vosem...Sem..."_

_Jack rapped his right fingers on the table, bored and waiting._

"_Shest...Pyat..."_

_Then they came in close and one man held his forehead in one __hand__ and leaned it sideways._

"_Chetiri..."_

_The guy then moved away and Jack felt something tiny pricking his temple. When he looked back, another scientist was holding a tiny authenticator button. _

"_Tri..."_

_The biotic leaked into the cut on his temple. His heart slowed under his gentle control__._

"_Dva..."_

_Then they shut their eyes and the scientist pressed the button._

"_Aden..."_

_**CRACK!**_

_And just like that, Jack's vision cracked like a broken lens. Everyone froze in time and his mind went numb._

_His arm fell off the metal table as his muscles relaxed, and his limp hand dangled over the ground._

_When the scientists leaned in, they frowned with deep sorrow. His eyes were dull and he looked dead...but it meant it was a success._

"_Jack?" one of the women whispered close to his ear. "Who do you see?"_

_And his mouth opened slightly.__ Something flickered like sunshine in his eye...he saw long, brown hair blow in some invisible breeze._

"_...h'r...hair...she..."_

"_She?" she repeated. "Are you _sure_, it's a _she?"

_They were suddenly hopeful._

_Jack's__ mouth moved slightly before he went completely still...but he looked calm – and that was all they needed._

_After they read his tablet and looked quickly through which parts of his brain were wiped, they dropped it on the table began to move around. _

_Silently one of the scientists pressed his complink on his ear._

_(Луна)__"Bretyam shad (Agent) FROST __has...been properly defragmented. He is no longer an active GUARDIAN."_

"_Does he remember his–"someone on the other end said quite loudly._

"_Yes," and several of the scientists sighed in the back gratefully. "He remembers her, not himself... So we will send him home."_

"Well done, it's been a while since we've got a report of success."

"_I know, sir." _

"Okay, now HURRY! TRANSPORT HIM OUT NOW!"

_And they scurried into action to get him out of his uniform and into some civilian clothes. The next GUARDIAN agent would be coming in a few minutes and they knew they had at least seventy more to properly defrag before the Purge would finally end. Then they could go __home...__forever._

_But the thing was, Jack __wasn't__ properly defragmented. They'd flicked through his readings so fast they read it wrong. They thought his mind up to the point of starting as an agent had been successfully wiped and he wouldn't wake up for twenty four hours._

_But their dose wasn't strong enough. What they didn't know was that he'd wake up eighteen hours earlier, with his past life gone and the pieces of being a spy still intact. Had they known, he wouldn't have been dressed to go home __and would've__ been sent to the execution room right then and there._

_But it wasn't like they __knew__. _

_They were in a rush and too stressed out to care. He would see her again they assumed. Jack said her name...but the thing was, he didn't know her anymore._

* * *

Tooth suddenly felt his body shake.

When she looked up, his eyes looked glassy he was pressing a hand over his heart. He didn't know why but his gunshot wound was hurting.

She looked at him worriedly.

"What's wrong?"

"I remembered..." he stopped when a hiss of pain passed over his lips and he looked away. His eyes were still wide open but he had this incredible fire flare up his chest.

"Your wound, i-is it bleeding again?" Tooth mumbled desperately. "You're overexerting your...Jack, I'm sorry! I should have never pushed you to–W-We should check your bandage in case–"

"No, Tooth, it's okay," Jack stopped her and he looked down at her wildly for a moment. Then he pulled his head up over hers to look at the streets behind her.

"I saw what happened to me...the defragmentation and it..." And he looked at her.

"Tooth, it ...it was a nightmare."

He looked more scared than she'd ever seen.

"But it...it still didn't explain _why _I became a GUARDIAN. One minute I'm a regular spy, the next I'm..."

She said nothing and frowned openly. He then shook his head.

"W-Why I was there and what I was meant to do, that I still don't know yet...And a part of me is starting to wonder...if I ever will..."

Suddenly he felt his fingers moving on their own accord. He thought he was looking for the wind but when he looked down...

* * *

_He was looking down at a bunch of bills and papers before he signed a cheque and dropped it onto another pile. His eyebrows then knitted together in deep thought while a breeze threw his bangs up slightly._

_"Jack, I'm home!"_

_He immediately smiled and leaned back in his dad's old chair._

_"How was school?!"_

* * *

"...C-Can we get off the main road?"

Jack looked back at her.

"What?"

She let go of her grip on his leather jacket and pointed down the road to the last neighbourhood hit the end of Burgess before the forest started behind it again.

"I don't know, I just...I just feel like you're gonna start screaming or something. A-And we don't want people to...you know..." Tooth faded out when it looked (and felt) like she was about to cry.

Jack's heart raced.

He raised a hand to her cheek – but Tooth beat him to it and quickly wiped away her own tear before it dripped down her cheek.

Nothing could describe the immense ache he suddenly felt seeing her like this.

"...I'm_ sorry,_" he exhaled shakily and shut his eyes.

She shook her head and grabbed his hand. Tooth then pulled away and stood on her tip toes to look around the neighbourhood.

"You can _get_ through this!" she whispered and she pointed at a house near the start of the treeline.

Jack looked up and nodded his head. "Let's go there."

Then the two of them rushed into the secluded trees so no one would see them.

...

_6:48 a.m._

The blue in the sky grew lighter with the coming of the morning sun. It lightened everything in a soft blue, making the snow glitter and the trees look less scarier than they seemed to be when they'd first walked in.

As they walked further and further into the dark trees, Jack looked back at the houses they left behind. They were cozy houses of every style – tiny cottages, two-storeys, back splits, ranches, bungalows – it was like everyone had their own idea of what home was to them and in their dark and quiet beauty, Jack kept seeing more flashes of the life he once had.

It didn't cease to make his heart stop racing.

"Tooth," Jack's deep voice drifted into the dark and curled over the shell of her ear. She shivered but answered.

"Y-Yeah?"

"I think...I think _do_ know this place," he breathed. "There's things, and people here I keep seeing."

"That's gr-great, Jack," she chattered. Tooth suddenly stumbled as the ground they were walking started to slope upwards and the snow got deep.

Jack turned on instinct and caught her hand.

"Careful."

"T-Thanks," and she blushed. Good thing her cheeks were already rosy from the cold so he didn't notice.

Jack's fingers twitched and he pulled her.

"And watch out for this trunk," he suddenly admitted. "There's a root that snags your shoelaces if you don't lift it high enough."

"Shoelaces? What are y–"

They both froze.

Jack and Tooth looked at each other, eyes wide, until Tooth nodded her head.

She then pretended to move around and jump like a little kid – and with her size against all the thick snow, it almost looked like it.

"L-Like this?" she asked and hopped on top of the stump beside it to avoid the trunk.

Jack's hand still gripped hers but something else flashed passed his eyes. As she landed, the forest turned back into a warm afternoon...and the little girl with long, brown hair touched the ground instead. Before she looked up, Tooth and the snow came rushing back.

He gulped and tightened his grip. He heard laughter echo in the back of his head.

"Y-Yeah..." he mumbled and Tooth looked up at him.

'**Keep going,**' she mouthed and she shook his hand to make him move forward again.

Jack kept his gaze on her for a long moment before he turned his head and pulled her up the hill.

"And don't..." he continued. His voice began to take on some wistful, husky tone the more he talked, the more he remembered. "...don't forget about the rock just up ahead. It's got a jagged point that'll cut your shin if you're not wearing jeans."

"O-Okay," Tooth replied. The slope was getting higher and steeper, but she and Jack were actually moving faster. He bit his lip and his blue eyes moved everywhere.

"And that tree there, it's the best one to climb...and see that bush...you can hide anything you want in...a-and branch_ way_ over there looks harmless but I _swear_ it...it whacked me so hard in the nose I started to bleed."

Suddenly he chuckled under his breath.

"A-And trust me, you don't want Ms. Mai coming after you for that...She's the worst nurse in school."

Tooth's eyes widened. Her heart started racing.

Anyone would've thought he was going mad, rambling the way he suddenly was – but to Tooth, it was the best thing she'd heard all night.

He was remembering a school, a lady, all the little things about this forest...

"You _do_ remember, Jack," she mumbled before it came out again like a gasp. "Ha, y-you do remember!" And the more she kept repeating it, the more it suddenly felt like he wanted to go faster than she could keep up.

So she let go of his hand.

He turned back worriedly, thinking she'd fallen but her face was bright and she waved a hand.

"Go, Jack!" she huffed and pushed his shoulder forward. "_Go!"_

And he turned back around slowly, nervous at first...

"GO!"

...before his feet started to move on their own. They started to leave her behind.

"Go without me!" Her eyes were wide and hopeful. And Jack took off without another thought.

And he didn't.

The harder his boots hit the earth, the more snow he threw up in his sprint. His breath was short and his chest was still throbbing with pain – and he was _sure _by now it had reopened from all the stress he was putting himself through...but he didn't care. His heart was racing and he _didn't care!_

"Keep running, Jack! Don't stop!"

The memories followed him. They danced behind each tree and his eyes grew wide while they flickered brighter, warmer, stronger. He felt like he was flying, carrying himself on the wind as it chased his desperation with. Hair and hood flying up, the trees became a blur and the slope got steeper. But he kept moving up faster and faster until...

Jack stopped an inch of the way there and waited for Tooth with a short gasp. After he patted a hand gingerly to the front of his jacket, he reached for a familiar long branch in the way and lifted it so he and Tooth wouldn't get hit.

Then they went over the top of the hill...

...and what they saw lying before them, made his heart stop and made her cover her mouth.

"What is...Oh my _gosh."_

In the growing light of the morning, there was blue everywhere. The area was covered with thick snow and beautiful flourishes of frost sugared the surfaces – it was obvious by the many swirls and strokes that the wind loved to float through here. The pine trees themselves were tall and gave a mature, protective circle around the little clearing. But it wasn't just the trees or the snow that made Tooth's mouth fall open...

...it was the small lake that sat frozen in the centre of it all.

The water had come from a tiny runoff of the Lehigh River about half away, and it pooled itself into its own little world. Protected by large cuts of stone around, beautiful thick ice covered the surface and the blue radiated off it glittered like an imperfect stain glass window.

It was breathless, it was a winter scene worthy of _every_ postcard and photograph in the world...

...It was Narnia.

And even Jack's eyes grew wide as he soaked it all in. Cautious and careful not to shatter any peace the lake had, the two stepped forward. They crunched softly through the snow toward the lake.

Neither said a word as Jack bravely put his boot on the edge of it and pressed his weight down, mentally assessing its depth and ice density.

Then he took a step forward...and another...and another...until he was well about a two metres over it.

He turned to Tooth, palm outstretched.

She didn't say a word, too lost for words at the way he looked so...natural, against it all.

"Toothiana?" he scrunched his eyebrows slightly. "You don't–"

"No! No, I..." and without waiting, she raised her boot timidly on the edge of the lake. When her dainty foot touched the ice and it didn't crush under her boot, she tapped it several times and placed it firmly down. Then she moved her other foot and stepped fully on it.

She held her breath and rose on her tiptoes and plopped back down like she always did when she was anxious...but the ice felt like cement.

Tooth exhaled and flit her cerise-colored eyes up at him. His hand was still out for hers.

She smiled.

If Jack (who was heavier than her and always calculated his environment around him), looked fine and could stand on the ice, then she'd keep going.

So she raised her own and grasped for his hand. And in a quick tug, he pulled forward and her soles slid her gently toward him. She then let go and shuffled around to look up again.

"It's...It's _beautiful!_" Tooth gasped and she spun in a circle, trying to take it all in. She was suddenly reminded of her sanctuary back in the Hypunjam palace and her heart soared.

"You knew, Jack! You _knew_...but I don't understand. _Why'd_ you bring us here?"

And when Jack turned his head too, to stare at the growing blue light, another memory hit him. But this time, he didn't shut his eyes. He watched it, wide-eyed and ready.

"_**Jack! I beat you!"**_

_And when he got to the top of the hill, he pretended to pant on his knees. He laughed between gasps of air as he looked around the lake, and smiled to see how warm and inviting it looked.__ It was their favourite place to go.__  
_

"_**Fine, fine!"**__ he chuckled and pulled his head up to stare at his 'little lady' as she spun in a small circle. __**"You win, Emma!"**_

_And when she finally stopped spinning and her long hair swung back down on either side of her face, he saw her round face, her maple eyes, the special dot near her eye, and the big smile on her face. _

_And his smile __softened. __**"You**__** always do."**_

"Because it is home, Tooth...It _is._"

"Jack?"

But he kept staring at the blue above the trees. It was growing lighter and the lake seemed to brighten.

"_**Haha, that's right! I always do, Mr. Overland!"**__ Emma heaved and dropped her hands from where they were stretched up to the sky. She looked at him for a moment._

"..land...s'n..."

"What?"

"_**One more day!"**__ she smiled sadly and he did too as she ran up to hug him._

Tooth inched a step forward on the ice toward his unmoving form.

"...Jack?"

_And Jack hugged her tightly. __**"Yeah...one more day..."**_

A tiny puff of breath escaped past his pale lips.

"It was never just 'Jack'..." he answered Tooth.

When he turned and looked at her, the orange from the coming sunrise finally started to show.

His heart raced. And he knew.

"...It's Jackson."

Then it all came back...and the way he looked left her breathless.

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "Shattered" (MTT Version) – Trading Yesterday **To prepare for the next chapter, listen to "The Kiss" composed by Mervyn Warren – it's my official track for the town of Burgess. Although they cut the ending off...not sure why :/**


	33. The Final Pages of Jackson Overland

_Edited. _**Nope it's true. You're actually seeing the correct number. 20,544 IS the word count SWEET LAWD. Know why? Cuz I realised that THIS is the height of the story (for Jack at least) so it is the longest chapter emotionally. It's also VERY serious and alot of things might be too heavy to understand or take in. So don't overexert yourself, read in pieces, and please get comfy! Now the next one might take a tad long to update asdjkfljkl, but hopefully the ones after will speed along. AND I SWEAR, I'LL BRING THE LEVEL OF DETAIL DOWN back to minimal spy-standards, lol it's just that THIS IS THE CLIMAX AND YOU SEE JUST HOW COMPLEX JACK IS! :D And akizaki14, you called this the Trust (white) arc of the story and I think that's cool! So let's call it that (: Ok no more ranting, here's a Jack-centered chapter for you. And oops, a lot of you must've been a tad confused by which memories Jack was happy in. Don't worry I'll clear it up. GOOD LUCK! I swear I'm done with these lengths, I know you guys keep saying it's fine and you love 'em but haha you can stop lying now xD THIS IS NOT NORMAL LOL. And to those celebrating with me west-side, have a happy long weekend! And thank you much again to ALL you guys for joining me on this ride through Project GUARDIAN. You're AMAZING troopers.**

***Now it'll be tough but just try to imagine it like a movie. The scenes jump back and forth but Jack's words in the center is the voiceover that connects them to the end. And I don't know why but I heard Matt Damon's voice. :p Do I have to cred him?**

* * *

**"And it will take this life of regret, for my heart to learn and forget. Tomorrow will be as it always has been, and I will fall to her again."**

* * *

"Y...You are my sunshine, m-my only sunshine..."

_Burgess is my home. It's always been home since the day I was born._

"You make me h...happy...when skies are grey..."

_I have never known a more perfect town, protecting everything I stood for, everything I loved...before it was all taken from me._

"You'll never know dear, how mu...how m-much _I love_ you..."

_But back then, I didn't know it would. You never do until it's too late to change it, until it's too late to save it._

"Please don't ta-take my sun...my sunsh-shine a-away..."

_All you see is the sun in your eyes, the noise in your ears, the beat in your chest...and you just live._

"...Rest...R-Rest in peace."

_You keep living, keep loving...or at least you keep trying to._

"Jamme, jamme 'ncoppa, jamme jà!"

She laughed and copied.

"Jamme, jamme 'ncoppa, jamme jà!"

"Funiculì!"

"Funiculà!"

"Funiculì!"

"Funiculàààà!"

"Hahaha, you're so weird!" She threw a piece of her toast at him.

He grinned like an idiot and threw his head back like a dramatic opera singer – and nearly hit himself with the frying pan he was holding. But he could care less as he finished the song.

"'ncoppa, jamme jà, funiculì, funiculà!"

She clapped as he bowed but then said–

"And THAT'S why we're not going to Italy!"

"Why not?!"

"Because then _I'll _come keep back a goofy butthead like you!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Heh, but you gotta admit, I'm like a master chef now. I can make a _mean_ lasagna!"

"Awww, can you make it for dinner?!"

"No!"

"Please, please, please–"

"No, I'm whipping up a–"

"Please, please, please, please–"

"W–"

"Pleeeeease!"

He sighed.

"Okay, _maybe!_"

_"Yeeeah!"_

Jack rubbed his eye with a knuckle. When he pulled it away, the sunlight coming from their kitchen window blinded him slightly. His pupil shrunk and the warm brown around it grew wide.

He smiled anyway.

When he turned to grab Emma's plate so he could finish washing the dishes, he froze to look at her.

Jack raised a playful eyebrow. "Uh, Emma?"

She was still in her pyjamas like he was, sitting in the chair at the table.

But she was also pressing a snow globe right up to her forehead and was looking deep inside it.

"Em!"

She turned it with her face to smile at him through the glass.

"What?"

Jack chuckled. Her round face grew even more round and was flipped upside-down.

"You're playing with it _again?"_ he teased before he went back to what he was doing. "And I thought you said the one from _Switzerland_ was your favourite!"

"Aw I know, I know!" the ten year-old giggled. "But this one's sooo pretty!"

And she started to rub it up and down her face like a crazy person. Jack laughed and shook his head.

"Oh, _okay!_"

When he was done cleaning up, he walked back to her and rubbed her hair.

Jack always brought her back a snow globe when he was away on his spy missions – of course, she didn't know that. She thought every time her big brother left, he was doing something _else_ abroad.

"H-Hey!" she squealed and she put the snow globe back on the table to fix her bangs and stuck her tongue out at Jack. He copied before a warm smile came back and he lowered himself into a squat.

When he was eye-level with her and the table, Emma grinned and turned back to the snow globe.

"Thanks again, Jack," she said, fingering the German text craved into its pedestal and spinning it around to look at the rest of the things dancing across it. "I love it...I Iove them all!"

And he grinned handsomely and reached up to flip it upside down so he would make it snow again.

"And don't worry, I promise I'll bring you another one for our collection," he mumbled gently and put his arm over her shoulders.

But she shook her head.

"You don't have to," she said. "Just save money and come home sooner!"

And he laughed, leaning his head over so it was atop Emma's.

"Ah, stop trying to guilt trip me! A month won't be that long! Would I trick you?"

"Yes."

And when he froze, she laughed at her big brother and reached for the globe again to shake it a little.

"You always do...except when you have to leave."

Jack frowned a little.

"You know, I can't come home early," he said and he kept looking into the snow globe watching the little fake snowflakes fall.

After a bit, he tried to smile again before she could see it.

"Those people need me."

"But a month is so long," she huffed and played with her shirt. "It's _always _really long."

"I know...but you've got grandma, a-and your cousins, and your friends," he nudged her gently. "A month always flies by!"

He smiled and continued as he watched the white particles land on top of the little people inside.

"Just think of all the places these came from and the people I've met. And one day, you might meet them too."

And she looked up at him with her mouth open.

"Really? I could go help people and build homes with you?"

Jack looked away, pretending to think about it for a second before he looked back at her with a grin.

"Yeah sure, Em. Of course you can. One day, you can join me."

And when he nodded, she smiled and looked away from him again.

"But can we go to a warm country instead?"

"Why?" he laughed. "What's wrong with cold countries?"

"Because you always go to cold places like Iceland and Russia! Why don't you ever go to hot places? Don't people need help there too?"

"Because I've told you before," he looked at her. "I _chose _to help the cold countries."

"Why?"

"'Cause I like it."

And Emma shook her head.

"You're so weird."

"And _you're_ gonna be late!" Then he planted a kiss on her head and motioned her off the chair.

"Now come on!" the twenty-year-old pushed. "Move it!"

And she groaned back hopped off anyway and flew around him. Jack spun, trying to see her but she moved so quickly and disappeared into the living room and over to her bedroom.

He shook his head with a smile. Jack then left the kitchen to go to his room.

"And don't forget your sweater this time!"

"Awh _Jack!"_

And as he passed down the hall, he kissed his fist and pressed his hand to a photograph of their parents on the wall.

"Don't 'awh' me, missy!"

"You're such a mom!"

"And you're such a brat!" And she laughed from her room.

"Am not!"

And Jack laughed back.

_Our parents died the spring I turned 18...Emma was eight. __But neither of us wanted to give up the house and since they didn't leave a will, the Burgess court had to probate one on behalf of my legal rights. So after the funeral, I made myself Emma's legal guardian and allocated most of the ownership to my parent's house. When it got transferred to my name, the two of us got to keep it. The other half of Emma's ownership was setup into a trust fund for her and our only living grandmother came in to help pay off the house with me. Ever since, Emma and I had a lot of growing up to do. _

_But we had support...and we had each other. We knew we could do anything and there was nothing that could hold us back from what we really wanted. _

_And before I_ _became_ _a spy, we filled our time with everything we could._

* * *

**Five years ago...**

* * *

"Bye Jack!"

"Hey, watch the road!" eighteen-year-old Jack smiled as he waved at his eight-year-old sister. "See you later!"

"You should stop by later!" she paused to push her bangs up into her helmet so she could see. "Mort's pulling out his old N64 and I _know _you love Super Smash Bros!"

Jack laughed and shook his head. "Can't, remember? But kick his butt!"

"Haha okay, I-I'll bring ya back a sandwich!"

"No avocado!"

"No promises!"

Then Emma biked off to her friend's house down the block before he could say yell back anything. Jack watched for a moment a grateful smile on his face.

Emma cried a lot for six months after the funeral that she rarely said a word. But it was something about Jack, trying to make her happy, to make her forget on nights she felt bad, like counting to ten or telling her a story, that eventually brought her back.

Their short grief and return to relatively happy lives was a mystery and wonder to everyone in Burgess...but it just made the town love the two more. And it was because of that, that everyone wanted to do anything for them. Whether it was friends inviting Emma over to play, or adults offering Jack things to do that would help him get into college with the best record ever.

When Emma was gone, Jack laughed and walked down the road to the auto shop, thinking about starting university in the fall.

_Emma and I rarely stayed home not because we were afraid of the house or anything. It was just Burgess. __It had this...this_ life_, this way of making us want to put on our shoes and run around. Maybe it was the air...the way the air smelled from the forest and the river..._

"Morning, Jack!"

"Hey!"

He threw a hand out to a neighbourhood kid and several other friends and random neighbours along the way. Everyone in Burgess was close-knit without being nosy, and kind without being overwhelming and he was thankful everyday for having a place to grow up as laidback and courteous as he could be.

He hopped the train track halfway through the centre of the east side of their town and walked to the auto shop.

_Maybe it was our parents who probably regretted, especially my Mom, saying over and over 'Jack, you can't have fun all the time!'...since most days I couldn't anymore. I couldn't run around...not unless it was to go to work...__So I made my own fun...with the people around me, and in the work I did._

"Hey Jack!" his boss threw an oily rag at his face the second he walked in. Jack laughed.

"Seriously?! Not even a minute and I'm in trouble?!"

"Whose bright idea was it to take the Harley out around the town just so it could skid up Thaddeus Lane?"

"What?" and Jack grinned impishly. _"_It was due for a test run!_"_

"Boy!"

And Jack laughed as his boss threw another rag.

"I tell ya if your dad wasn't a good friend of mine, I'd have run you over with a car years ago!"

"Don't say that!" Jack mocked. "There might be kids around!"

"Yeah, _you!" _

"Takes one t–"

Then Jack ran and laughed until his stomach hurt.

And the other mechanics laughed at him and their boss' usual antics.

Jack loved it there. He always loved cars, how they worked and how fast they could go, but he was more of a motorcycle inspector than an actual grease monkey; that and Jack was a polisher, shining everything he could with the wax from his kit and the light from his smile.

And Jack also had another job at the library, stocking books and cataloging titles. He always had a good memory and learned a lot about different places – but Jack had a weird habit of using a broomstick to balance two crates of books across his shoulders.

Jack liked to say that it worked on his back muscles and he liked carrying it like a staff. The librarian said that he looked more like farmer trying to lift stock. But he was always careful...unless the library was absolutely dead and he twirled it around and jumped on desks like a six year old.

Still, Jack couldn't complain. The money was great and the two jobs helped pay off a good chunk of their monthly rent.

_After I graduated high school, I knew what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to study foreign policies and protection...reading all those books, spending all that time in court to make sure I could look after Emma really brought that part out of me, and the part that idolised the people who helped bring justice for my parents' deaths. So I got accepted into Custos University (about an hour's drive away from Burgess) a private college that helped students fast-track their studies toward a career in global relations, economy and psychology. How I got in, I'll never know, but I still remember their motto: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?_

_"Who has custody of the custodians?" meaning "Who guards the guards?" or "Who watches the watchmen?"_

_God knows a part of me wanted to stay in Burgess forever so I could look out for Emma...but she reminded me over and over again to reach for what I really wanted. I wanted to watch people, like the people who watched for my family, who found my parents, and kept us safe. I wanted to watch out for my little sister. As I studied, professors and faculties send out the students' eligibility (including mine) to several intelligence agencies for internship. _

_And then came the day a professor I knew well called me into his office..._

* * *

**Eight months later as a university student...**

* * *

A nineteen-year-old Jack walked into the professor's office.

His hair was still damp from the shower he'd just had after working out at the gym and he'd been ready to drive home – he even had his car keys in his hand – before he got a call on his cell from the main receptionist.

He opened the professor's door with his gym bag still slung over his shoulder and smiled warmly to the man he'd grown to know over the past few months. Every student at Custos had one or more teacher they had to confide in – and it was just Jack's luck that the guy he'd bumped into the day he started out, was the head of the global relations department. He was now his mentor.

He was surprised though when there was another man standing in the office with him. It was a tall guy in a dark business suit.

"Jack, I'm glad you could make it!" the professor smiled warmly. "I'm sorry this was so late."

"It's alright," Jack smiled and twirled his keys before he shoved them into his pocket. He then walked up to both men and shook the professor's hand as usual. "What's the occasion?"

"I wanted you to meet an associate of mine since he's driving through Lehigh before he leaves again," he said kindly before he introduced the two to each other. "Jack, meet Damon Slater. Damon, this is Jackson Overland."

As the two shook hands, the professor continued.

"Jack, Damon's one of the lead recruiters for a private intelligence agency right up in Buffalo," then to Damon. "And Jack here is one of the best all-around students here at Custos."

Jack's eyes grew wide.

"Pr...Private inte...like the CIA?"

And Damon shrugged.

"And the NSA, the DIA, the IC, and the FBI. I'm an access agent. "

Jack instantly tensed. "Y-You're an agent?"

_'No, an access agent! The kind that provide profiling information that can help lead to recruitment into an intelligence service...__Whoa,' _he thought. _'No wonder he's dressed like James Bond...Better be on your best behaviour!'_

"Uh, nice to meet you," he said lamely and Damon was actually very polite and smiled warmly.

"Same to you," he answered. "So I guess you've been aware of your teachers' activities in sending out your records to potential agencies like us then? You didn't bat an eyelash when he mentioned where I work."

And Jack shrugged.

"I heard things but I didn't think it was actually happening...until now."

And both men laughed when he suddenly looked self-conscious and started rubbing his head. Then the professor looked at him again.

"Well, don't worry, it's not an interview," he reassured the brunette. "They've already checked your records."

"Sir, you sent mine out already?!" the nineteen-year-old choked before he stop himself.

"Of course, Jack. We're a fast-track university, remember? You're gonna be graduating in a year so it's our jobs as faculties to send out your transcripts before you leave."

Jack rubbed his neck. "I guess."

_I had so much fun then, jumping between work and school...I went on a lot of trips every other week with other students to bureaus and government agencies that we got to shadow and question. I guess I'd forgotten what would happen in between..._

Damon nodded.

"And your GPA is impressive. Plus, you passed all our entry-level tests."

Jack blinked. He did?

"Wait, what? _When?"_

"Several of our associates meet with you and the other students when you go away on trips. Jack, you've met with most of them without even realising it. They said you were 'memorable'."

'_Yeah, probably because I make an idiot outta myself,'_ and Jack's ears turned red. But Damon continued.

"And remember that guy who wanted to kick box with you twice a week?"

"Dan? Yeah, what about–"

"Well, he's a trainer from our company. It was his assignment to assess your physical wellness."

Jack paled slightly.

"Seriously?!"

But he swore he'd kicked that guy's ass at least twice in a fight – he was a spy?

Damon caught his look and smirked. "Oh yeah, he went easy on you. Recruiters always do."

Jack couldn't believe what he was hearing. He felt like he wanted to fall over.

"I-Bu-Wh...Was...that all? Just him?"

"And the magic show we invited you and your families to on campus, two months ago? Remember the magician who picked on every student in the class?"

Jack gulped.

He remembered that day.

* * *

_Emma was so excited and pulled Jack to the front seats. She had never seen his school before and being in the big auditorium to see a magic show made her all excited._

_"Haha, come on, Jack! Let's get a seat up front!" she whispered and he laughed._

"_Heh, alright alright slow your roll!"_

_The rest of the night, he, Emma, his classmates from the same psychology course, and _their_ families were put on the spot by the magician._

_They each had to figure out how to solve a puzzle or get out of a trick. When Jack got pulled up (much to his awkwardness), the magician bound his hands and told him to solve a puzzle on the table in order to find the correct key code._

_The students gulped and snickered that he'd make a fool of himself. __But after he stopped blushing, Jack smiled slightly. _

_He loved games. _

_And he was always good at most so in seven seconds flat, he figured it out and unbound his wrists. _

_Emma was the only one in the audience who didn't gasp – she just grinned and clapped wildly._

* * *

When Jack nodded nervously, Damon smirked and crossed his arms.

"Stable cognition, quick reaction time, interest in athleticism," when he nudged his chin at Jack's gym bag, the brunette nervously tightened his hold on the strap.

"You're a good candidate, Jack. But I guess I gotta ask...Why're you trying to get out of school so quickly?"

Jack rubbed his head.

"I...There's just so much I want to do, I guess..."

"And what do you want to do?" the professor asked.

"I..." and Jack lifted his head with a smile. "I want to help people."

And the professor shot him a secret smile.

"Maybe a policeman? Or a firefighter?"

And Jack smirked.

"Maybe a policeman...or a firefighter."

And Damon uncrossed his arms - and the corner of his mouth lifted.

"Or...why not consider...a career in espionage?"

And Jack's heart stopped.

"S..._Seriously?"_

"Yes," Damon answered but Jack shook his head a little.

"B-But don't I have to...work my way up from, you know, the military, Black Ops, o-or a police task force before I can even be considered for a position in–"

"Well, that's what you're university is privately designed for," Damon smile stretched. "All those courses on military conduct, foreign policy, civil _and_ mechanical engineering weren't for nothing. The things you've learned helped fast-track you for internship and full employment, if you wanted."

"You're joking!"

"Well, he wouldn't have stopped all this way for nothing, Jack!" the professor butt in and Jack's fell open. His gym bag slipped off his shoulder.

"Y...You're serious. You...Y-You want me to join an intelli...and become a..."

Damon nodded genuinely.

The professor laughed.

"Eight months this boy goes without a quick remark and suddenly he's speechless!" he laughed. "I never thought I'd see the day."

And Jack looked at him and laughed. "H-Hey! Cut me some slack, sir! I never expected this!"

And Damon chuckled. "Our company is private and is more of a supportive branch to the large bureaus like the CIA and the FBI. So we gather more of our information by going more overseas than working from homebase. As well, our agents provide extra protection to dignitaries worldwide so many of our members, _including_ the first-timers, play active roles and really get to experience global politics upfront. And trust me..."

He paused before he smiled.

"The pay is _way_ more than you'll ever make as a cop or a fireman," and Jack's mouth still hung open.

"Hey!" the professor cried. "My nephew's a cop!"

"Well, why didn't you send him to me then?" Damon joked and the professor crossed his arms and looked at Jack.

"Eh, because my nephew's stupid and I know Jackson," he then looked at his student, "and if anyone can do this, it's him."

And when Jack finally finished wiping his jaw off the ground, he grinned gratefully at his prof.

'_And he also deserves this one shot...for his family,' _the professor thought with a grin back of his own.

"So what do you say, Jack?" Damon asked. "I can come back and discuss more when I return from Buffalo...but would you like to consider being a covert operative?"

And Jack hesitated for a moment, thinking about how much his life would change in this one moment...but he thought of Burgess, he thought of his parents' house that he was trying to help pay off every month with two jobs and a little help from his grandma, and he thought of Emma.

'_Chase your dreams, Jack!' _she always tried to reassure him when he came home tired from school and doubtful about his future._ 'Chase your dreams and I'll be so proud!'_

"I-I do...I do!"

Then Jack looked back up at Damon and nodded his head with a wide smile.

"...I will."

Later after the meeting, Jack drove with all his windows open and shut off the radio. He was still gasping with excitement, trying to soak it all in while the wind rushed into his face.

But he couldn't tell Emma yet, he couldn't tell _anyone_ yet in case it was like in the movies where you were sworn to secrecy. So that night when he got home, he just told Emma that he'd been accepted to join the peace corps, an organization sponsored by the US government that sent young people to work as volunteers in developing countries.

She squealed in excitement and they both stayed up all night watching spy movies and bingeing on snacks.

_A week later Damon came back and prepared my paperwork...My fingers were shaking so bad under the desk that I almost couldn't sit straight._

"Why do you think you should work for us, Jack?" Damon asked him that night. But Jack leaned back and did him one better.

"Why do you think _I _should work _you?_" he smirked and Damon smirked back.

Jack wasn't dumb. He knew Damon and the company wouldn't have gone through all this for him unless they really wanted him. But he had to play it like he had to be coaxed into joining.

So Damon explained.

"Well, you'd be working on the cutting edge, exposed to the latest weapons and technology that you wouldn't see anywhere else because we've classified it...Along with combat and psychoanalytical training...and data methods like super-string theory, chaos math, advanced algorithms...Okay, _code-breaking,_ basically. _And,_ we handle a lot of intelligence workloads both national and international."

"I knew that," Jack smiled. "I just wanted to hear you say it. I researched your website and your mission statements all last week."

And Damon rolled his eyes with a smile.

"So then if you know all that already, Jack, lemme ask then...why _shouldn't_ you join us? I think that makes more sense to ask."

Jack shrugged.

"If I fail...what happens to the people I can't help?"

Damon didn't say anything so Jack frowned gently.

"Say something happens like, I find the secret location of some warehouse housing a terrorist somewhere in the world and our agency sends an air strike on it...but then hundreds of people in the surrounding village dies...Do I...H-How do I _live_ with that on my conscious knowing that...even though my actions might've been the right thing to do...it still caused a terrible outcome?"

Damon sighed and rubbed his stubble.

"...It's smart that you're thinking about Consequentialism."

And Jack frowned – he _had to_ for his philosophy classes. How else would students like him, going into law enforcement and global policy, going to understand what things like 'punishment', 'foreseeable suffering' and 'saving people' really meant?

"But don't worry, Jack," Damon continued. "It's okay, you don't have to be a Provocateur. Our agency consists of multiple levels of assignments for agents. You don't have to choose that area if you're uncomfortable. Some agents do it for the purpose of saving the rest in the future...but if you want, I can put in a recommendation so that you only get assigned to a particular sector. What do you like, intelligence gathering? Influence? Facilities supervi–"

"Protective services."

Doman paused. "Sorry?"

Jack was serious and didn't blink.

He thought of Emma and his parents.

He'd _been _thinking of them all week as he considered his future career.

"Can you put me in protective services?" Jack asked again. "I-I'm also okay with intelligence gathering but I'd...I'd like to bodyguard and protect the people and families today...You know, continue to give _them_ a chance at a future."

And Damon heard the conviction, heard the genuine plea in Jack's tone. He sounded like he'd already found where he wanted to belong. And Damon smiled – he never told anyone, but his favourite people always went to the protection sector.

"Okay...I'll give you a shot."

_It turned out that I really WAS sworn secrecy...I couldn't tell Emma, my Grams, or anyone that I'd become a secret agent. __But, it was fine! Really, I...I was paranoid like a superhero in a comic book...heh, you know, if the bad guys find out your real identity then all your loved ones would be in danger? So I never said a word about my 'double life' to Em when I got back._

_I graduated from Custos a year early and I continued on with the lie that when I had to leave for weeks at a time, it was because I was in another country building homes and giving people aid..._

_In a way I was...so that's what I said, what I did..._

* * *

**Fast track to a year after his acceptance to be a regular spy...**

* * *

"Bye, Jack," Emma whispered.

She hugged her big brother one last time.

As they did, the man who came to pick up Jack shook his grandmother's hand politely as the two said their goodbyes.

Jack was leaving again, and according to Emma, he was heading for Tibet to help rebuild a school that had gotten destroyed in some landslide. And she was proud.

"My big bro's gonna help other kids!" she'd always boast proudly while he was away.

Jack grinned softly and ruffled her hair.

"And don't bug Grams again about going up to the lake!" the nineteen-year-old whispered. "She can't walk that hill, remember? And it's _our_ thing!"

And she rolled her eyes. "Okaaaay!" and he hugged her again before he moved over to his sweet but sassy grandmother.

"Bye grandma," Jack hugged her tight. "Take it easy, kay?"

"I always do, sugar maple," she grinned warmly and hugged him. Jack grinned into her sweater. He was always comforted by the fact that even though his parents died, and he had to leave, that Emma could still be safe and stay with her. Their grandmother was a real character too and when Emma wasn't out with friends or at school, he always came back to weird stories about the two of them doing weirder things.

Jack then knelt slightly to block Emma's view of the two of them.

The man (who was really an agent), picked up on it instantly and went to talk with his little sister. As the two chatted about snow and stinky farms, Jack pulled out two envelopes from his coat and handed them to his grandmother.

"_Here's my half for next month,"_ he said softly as her mouth fell open. _"And I forgot to go to the bank today and deposit this into Em's account so could you–"_

"_Jackson."_

Jack looked up. He hated when she used his full name. His grandmother looked at him.

"_No, sweetheart! You don't have to!"_ she whispered. "_You're my only grandson, you keep it!"_

"_No, no, take it!"_ he then handed it to her quickly. _"I need to make sure you and our house and all of us are still gonna be fine when I get back. So pay the rent early and–"_

"_Jack!"_

"_Grams, please,"_ he whispered back. _"Or, at least use it so you two can go out and have a good time for me."_

"_Okay, okay..." _And she sighed because when Jack got started there was no stopping him.

She then hugged him again tightly.

"_I still don't know where you're getting all this money from,"_ she teased. _"Are you sure you're not selling blood to some hobo somewhere?"_

And when Jack's mouth fell open, she smirked.

_"Ha, I knew it!"_

_"Grandma!"_

Yeah, _that's_ where he got it from. Well, through his dad first, but _then _from his grandmother.

"_No!_" he laughed. _"But I told you this new peace corps organization that I work for really pays us well."_

"_Okay, but be careful this time!"_ she said and kissed his cheek. _"The last time you came home with a limp, remember?"_

Jack remembered.

He hadn't gone on his missions yet but he had started his tae kwon do training and the instructors were severe. Though he _had_ gone up two belts since then so it was okay.

"Jack, we should leave now," the man said. And Jack heard the subtle anxiety in his tone and nodded.

Not only was he learning tae kwon do and kendo, but he was also training on psychoanalyses – everything from physical, emotional, and abnormal sensory to help as he studied cases. So hearing the slight change in his tenor, made Jack remember just why he was leaving.

Why he _always_ left.

"Yeah, okay...so..." Jack rubbed his head and moved away from his family.

Leaving was always the hardest. Especially when Emma always ran to hug him one more time.

"_Bring me back another snow globe,"_ she whispered and he chuckled.

"_I thought you said no more!"_

"_I did, but you make me wait so you owe me!" _she laughed._ "And say hi to the families for me! I know you're not allowed to take pictures..."_

And he smiled and hugged her back.

_"I will._"

Then Jack and his partner left in the dead of the night.

_I lied through my teeth for two years that it was so easy by that point. _

_Every time I left Burgess, I took a two-hour, fifty mile drive to Ponderosa Private Airport. It was privately owned so our company jets didn't have to call air traffic control._

_And that's how I got in and out of Burgess as a regular spy for two years._

The second Jack left the outskirts of his home town with his partner, his game face came on and he pulled out his case study to read up on the mission they were about to take.

When he landed in Brussels, with his partner and met up with the rest of their team, one of them opened their arms.

"Heeey, look whose back!"

And Jack smirked. "Hell yeah, roaring and ready to go!"

As regular field agents, Jack and his team acted like citizens. They collected information in hot zones (while infiltrating a few offices here and there) and protected a member of Germany's Federal Ministry of Justice who was being targeted.

They never actually went out and took down the criminals, god no. But for Jack that was fine because he didn't want to fight anyone. He much rather preferred to watch people from afar and was happy knowing the people he protected could go home to their families.

_That_, and it was nice to always receive a handshake and be offered a position in a bureau if he ever wanted to leave the espionage career path.

He always grinned when those offers came up.

Later in the newspaper, his partner read an article about the same guy they got info on and found him tied up in the weirdest way by police.

"You think one of ours did that?" he asked and Jack shrugged.

"Man, that would be so cool to have moves like that," another partner commented and they all agreed.

After that, they all went about their business as covert bodyguards as usual.

_I didn't know about Project GUARDIAN back then. No one did unless you were chosen. I was just a regular spy, working for this private intelligence agency in two units – reconnaissance and protection services. And I'll tell you...I learned a heck of a lot more in those two years as a spy than I would have in a normal life._

_I learned about the nature of economy, time zones, the importance of quick nutrition...I had to understand every trade in the world, had to know populations and cultures at the drop of a time, the names and positions of more than a dozen dignitaries, criminals, and governments worldwide...I had to know everything for the people around me._

_...But what did I learn for myself? _

_I learned tolerance..._

His partner yawned on the other end of his Bluetooth.

_"Man, it's been six hours...How long are we gonna be at this?"_

Jack smiled and rubbed his eye from his post way up high.

"A couple more, man...Hang in there."

_Endurance..._

"That's Lap Four!"

Jack and the other thirty-or-so agents huffed and gasped as they continued on in their 10K cross-country run.

"You keep going, guys!"

One guy pretended to cry just to make them all laugh.

"KEEP GOING!"

_Teamwork..._

Adel blocked a punch combo from a guy coming at him with his knife. When he knocked the wrist away, he dived down quickly to do a low roundhouse to trip the criminal.

As predicted, the guy sensed it and jumped back – so Jack swooped in, grabbed his unarmed hand and flipped him deftly on his back.

_Resourcefulness..._

"_Oh fuck!"_

Jack's eyebrows flew up as his earpiece crackled.

"_What's wrong?!"_

"_I...I think my location's been compromised!"_

"_Nina, hang on!"_

Jack got up from his table.

_Sacrifice..._

"Miss, would you be so kind as t–"

Jack forcefully bumped into him as he pretended not to look where he was going.

"Oh, es tut mir leid (sorry)," Jack muttered in German but he sent the guy a dark look and kept walking.

The guy immediately sensed Jack's hostility and shifted all his suspicions onto him. But Jack kept walking to the men's washroom.

"_Jackson, are you crazy!?"_ Nina breathed into the mic.

"_Just get backup _now!" he murmured and he kept walking. The man followed him all the way to the washroom, but when he went inside, Jack was gone.

"What the hell?" he muttered.

_SNAP!_

Jack broke the handle off the washroom door. The guy spun around and was shocked.

Jack was dangling his gun on one finger with a dark look.

"Looking for something?"

_I also learned how to work under pressure__...the philosophies of patience and discipline..._

"In 2008, five brothers working as underbosses and security chiefs of the Sinaloa drug cartel betrayed their leader El Chapo, allying themselves and their lieutenants with the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas after their arrest...what was the name of the brother that headed the new drug ring?"

Jack sensed a hit coming on his right and he took a step back throwing his arm out to deflect it.

"Arturo Beltrán Leyva!"

"What is the population and GDP of Malaysia?"

Jack blocked a two hit-combo with his boot and his right hand before he got a punch to the stomach. But he recovered quickly and grinded his teeth.

"Ov'...Over 29,495,000. Their GDP is $340 billion!"

"How do you disassemble a Walther P22 pistol?"

Jack caught a knee with both hands coming toward his front and shoved it down. His breath came out raspy as he thought about his answer.

"Y...You remove the stabilizer. Then press down the takedown lever and cock the hammer. Fully retract the slide, lift its rear section, and slide off the receiver. Then you remove guide rod. Assembly is in the reverse order!"

The questions stopped and so did hits.

Jack took his blindfold and blinked.

_...and I learned that without suffering, there wouldn't be compassion._

"W-We lost ev'r...ev-everything..." the Japanese ambassador and his wife knelt in the snow in front of their home. It was burned to ashes and Jack couldn't swallow the lump in his throat.

He tried to open his mouth to say something but the little girl he was holding squirmed out of his arms. He gently lowered her to the ground and she ran to her father.

He sensed it and turned to hold her tightly. After he pushed her hair out of her face, he turned to Jack and his team.

"B-But they were just things...I-I still have my family," he hiccupped and nodded. "Thanks to you all."

After he bowed (and Jack and the others showed their respects) he picked up his daughter and held his wife's hand.

_I learned alot...and I had to learn more..._

Jack assembled his Ruger Mark III pistol before he put it down on the weapon table.

Afterwards, he loaded two rifles and put them in his side holsters.

_I learned that some things were necessary no matter what you wanted or how you wanted...and I think __**that**__ was the hardest lesson I had to accept..._

_The missions I went on, the more carnage I witnessed it became a routine. The more things I saw, the more I had to stop caring so much...because I was stuck. I was stuck in a life where all I could do was help in the little way I could...but I couldn't interfere with the affairs of others...unless I was ordered to._

_And if I defected ...the blood was on MY hands._

"_Jack,"_ someone talked to him on his earpiece because he was supposed to have left the trailer. But the cameras didn't stop recording the criminal who was following the woman in the park.

Jack narrowed his eyes.

"_Is he blitzing her or coercing her to go with him?"_ he mumbled.

"_I don't know!"_ the other voice panicked. _"But you gotta get out of there! His bodyguard will come back and find you unless–"_

"_But that's how he gets his targets,"_ Jack argued and gritted his teeth.

He had never clenched his jaw before since they were always taught that calmness was a key part of a spy's control over himself – but he couldn't help it.

"_For two days, we've been following this bastard, wondering how he lures them but he vanishes...Then what, twelve hours later they all end up at bus stops without a kidney? I can–"_

"_No, Jack! Get _out!"

"_Nairy, I'm fast enough!"_ Jack hissed and he grabbed what he could and memorised the criminal's prolife on the camera one more time before he spun.

But by the time he was halfway to his escape route, the bodyguard came back.

By the end of the night, Jack had to be rescued by three older spies, Nairy was dead, and the white, snowflake shaped scar in the middle of his palm was a attest to his punishment.

_...I was stuck. _

_Being a spy, was the same as...being a spirit...being a spirit who walked the earth...I could only hope to touch a few things, and only a few people could see me but no matter what I wanted, there was a veil over me...and I think that's how all spies feel. __We work hard, we protect and we watch others as well as any cop or camera, but we're ghosts. We can't interact and our actions can't be recognised..._

_So you try to laugh it off...to mask the pain and act like nothing's wrong...And that's how some people start off, that's how_ I_ was, always...always hiding it..._

"You got an opinion on this stealth debate, Jack?"

When all eyes were on him, Jack raised both hands and backed away with a slight grin.

"Oh, don't look at me, Malik. I'm invisible, remember?" he teased as he crouched behind a wall.

"No you're not, idiot, I can see you!" one guy harped. "Bend your knee in!"

"You can see me?" Jack mocked and stepped out with a heart to his chest. "A-And hear me?"

The other guys rolled their eyes and laughed as he started to pretend to freak out.

"He sees me!" Jack gasped with a grin before it turned into a look of shock.

Jack then threw a hand to his chest.

"Oh no! Shit, he _sees _me! I'm compromised, I'm going down!"

And when one of the spies got up to give him a noogie, Jack chuckled and they all laughed again.

Later when they were off duty they all went out for drinks...light ones, mind you. They _were_ still spies and they needed all the mental clarity they had at their full potential.

_That's what kept me going, what made me bottle it all up. And w__hen I was home, no one ever saw that side of me, I made sure of it._

"HEY! LOOK WHOSE BACK?"

"JAAACK!"

"Haha, Em's such a baby! Leave him alone!"

"HAHA, NO! LET HER GO! LET HER RUN TO ME!"

And Emma's shot from her cousins' hold and lunged on her big brother until they were a big mess of laughing and crying all over the front door. He had a new snow globe in his bag.

_ I held onto the good memories, the same way Emma held on to each new paperweight and swore never to sell them. And when I left, I tucked it away._

_But I still started feeling it more and more..._

Jack sat in his hotel room with a postcard. It had a picture of the Swiss Alps and he flipped it over and starting writing his letter to Emma.

He signed it with '_Miss you, snowflake!'_ then rushed down to the lobby and gave the receptionist (undercover with them) to send it out to Burgess. She chuckled and rolled her eyes since Jack had asked her to earlier.

"You sure it'll travel without clearance?"

"Of course!"

"You're _sure?_"

"Jackson! Haha, that's my job–"

"I'm_ serious."_

She paused.

"Uh, yeah...Chill out, nothing's gonna happen to this...or whoever's on the other end."

"I..." Jack sighed after he checked how late it was on the clock.

"Okay, sorry," he said then ran a hand through his hair. "I'm just stressed, you know?"

Then she sighed too.

"Tell me something I don't know...but at least the money's good, right?"

And Jack nodded apologetically. With every cheque he got, he could pay off their house faster, and put more money into his savings. Jack was even able to add money into Emma's trust fund so every chunk, every extra dollar went to her and her future. He wanted to make sure she would be okay and never needed anything.

___I grew more serious, more mature...less naive. A__nd when that happened, I had to see things a lot more clearly. My eyes were wide open, and I saw things and people...for who they really were._

"It's okay that you didn't know, Jack."

Jack shook his head as he held his Styrofoam cup. The hot chocolate was still warm but he wasn't thirsty anymore. His hand cast was still cradled to his chest.

"She set me up. I..." Jack kept looking across the room with a wide, hurtful look. "And I never picked up on it."

His superior looked down at him with a sullen face. "None of us did, son."

Jack didn't say anything.

"Nairy was a part of his cartel. She was the one who leaked our information to him so he knew where to make the right drop-offs."

"..."

"But sometimes we're so busy watching our enemies...we forget to watch our friends."

Jack's eyes started to sting at in the corner of his eyes – not because of Nairy, god no.

But his hand was still hurting like a bitch.

_I started to...to psychoanalyse everything. Every_thing_ and every_one_, and I felt bad about it. But...it had to be done._

_But god knows I felt it...that discharge..._

* * *

**Another year later...**

* * *

"AU _SECOURS! (HELP!)"_

Jack turned to the French diplomat and rushed just in time to stop one of hitmen hired to kidnap her.

He threw his left arm up in a parry to throw the taller man off before he reacted quickly. Jack grabbed the other fist flying at him and bent it up. Then he glared and spun deftly on his heel until his back was facing the man's chest.

With a controlled breath, he then pulled the guy's arm out and over his own shoulder.

"Gwarh!" the guy yelled but Jack narrowed his eyes and lowered his knees instantly. He threw his whole body's momentum forward enough for the guy to flip over on the concrete before he let go.

But Jack knew he had to hurry.

He had to knock out the guy before he recovered. So he turned on his boot and dropped down beside him ready to throw a punch at his face. But the hitman had anticipated it and was already one step ahead. So when Jack moved in–

_Spisss!_

"Aah!"

Jack covered his eyes and pulled away.

The guy got up instantly and tried to attack him but a moment later, Jack's other team members appeared.

They saved him, and the diplomat, and their mission was successful.

But months later...

Jack was stationed in Denmark, packing his things from his lookout post.

His team were doing sleep rounds but they decided that he could head back to their hotel room them while they continued. That's what they did, rotating between each person so the hotel wouldn't get suspicious about how long they would be out.

"Get a couple hours of shuteye then we'll switch, yeah?" one of the spies said and Jack nodded his head.

"Uh yeah...thanks," he sighed.

_I realised after I joined the GUARDIAN program that the chemical I'd been hit with must've been some kind of hallucinogen...it made me see things in my sleep. Nightmares...things that I didn't want to happen that I thought never would._

Jack was so tired and couldn't wait to collapse for a powernap. But when he got the hotel room, dropped his bag, took off his blazer over his turtleneck and fell asleep on his bed...a nightmare plagued him.

He dreamt that Emma was asking him again to join him on his trips to help people in other countries. And like every dream, he always said 'not yet'. But this time she asked him again and he said yes.

The second he blinked his eyes though, his heart stopped beating in his chest.

Emma looked up at him with a blank look, her skin sunken and pale. Her irises were blurred out and dark, spidery veins appeared under her eyes. Her breath was also shallow like she could barely breathe.

In his dream he ran to her, and just as he felt himself fall on his knees in front of her, held her close and bent his head, he fell the pain of a gunshot shoot through his chest.

"I'm sorry, Emma...E-Em, I'm _sorry!_"

Then he woke up with a gasp, his dark blue turtleneck soaked around his neck and his hair clung with sweat to his forehead.

He couldn't get back to sleep for that shift after.

_I knew I should've let it go...It was perfectly fine to imagine loved ones in danger when you work in such a dangerous occupation – I'm sure I wasn't the only one who endured hallucinations like that. But there's something like a cold feeling you get inside that you can't explain...but you sense it. You feel it. _

_So like a true spy at that point, I decided to trust my instincts...They told me to watch out._

Two years in, Jack was 21, mature (still a bit cheeky) and always alert and on his toes. He watched his teammates and where his personal information floated with a little more attention. The boys always use to tell him to watch his things but he didn't really bother before.

But now being one of the company's top agents in his age range, and having that nightmare hanging over his head, he felt he needed to.

"Number of missions successfully completed: 604, all except for one," Damon whistled as he read back Jack's file. Jack smiled as he escorted the senior access agent through the SI unit of the company. The recruiter was heading to Barcelona to meet with a new group of eligible students.

They passed the tech analysts sector, ignoring the fast typing of keyboards and the mutterings of over sixty active agents doing intel for other spy teams around the world. Sometimes the technical analysts had to all work on one giant case (like to crack a government super computer or track the movements of a counter-intelligence organization) or in teams to get large operations done; by as Jack and Damon walked past the techies that day, they were all concentrated and focused on their own assigned missions.

Jack didn't bother paying attention to them.

"Well Jack, I must say," Damon finalized as they reached the elevators leading up to the grandmaster hall. "When I look back on how the last 28 months has helped you grow, I'm more and more grateful to your professor for sending your file to us. Your track record is one of, if not, the best for your age range."

He then bonked Jack on the head with his own file. "You're a survivor, Jack. That means something. Keep it up, you might run this place one day."

"Ha, fat chance!"

Then Damon left Jack with his file and left for his private jet. He thought Jack, being all mature, top spy and what-not, meant that he wouldn't look at his own private files. Usually spies were supposed to send them through an electronic chute that would safeguard their information in the lower levels of the company.

But Jack was curious.

So making sure all the scientists in the SI unit weren't looking, he backed away nonchalantly to the nearest men's washroom and snuck a peek at his file.

He made sure no one was inside then went into the last stall. Leaning against the wall, Jack read his file quickly.

He didn't know why but he wanted to make sure that the only mission he'd ever actually failed was the one involving Nairy.

But nope, Damon had been wrong. He'd failed _three _missions, not one.

But bless the agent's heart for trying to give Jack that bout of confidence. Jack smiled a little and shook his head, flipping his sheets back to the front.

"Heh, you're really something, Da–"

Jack stopped flipping the sheets though until he got to the front.

It had all his information; full name, his address, his social security number, his height, weight, blood type...

...and even his 'next of kin'.

His sister was there like his proud beacon of hope.

_Emma Overland._

But his eyebrows knitted together.

She had a weird symbol next to her name. It was like a tiny heart with a lightning bolt through it and a circle around it.

He'd never seen it before...but whatever it was, it made the hairs on his neck stand up.

So Jack paused and waited until the washroom was empty for sure then memorised the symbol and flipped through his file, brown eyes moving and moving trying to match it to anything he might've seen on the papers.

Then he stopped on the Credentials page. He was the same symbol next to its assigned term.

_**Legacy Benefit. **_

Someone had put a checkmark next to it.

And when Jack leaned in close to assess its penmanship, he realised the ink was still fresh.

The checkmark had been recent...which meant Emma had been cleared for something. And he didn't know for what.

_I made myself mad for days...Whatever time I could get to myself, I asked few people about the Legacy Benefit. What it meant, what it did...and I was discreet as possible. First rule of discretion, remember? Ask as little questions as possible. I'd thought at first maybe it was like an insurance plan for Em or something in case...something happened to me, she'd be looked after. But the more people came up blank on it, the more my skin started to crawl. I realised it couldn't have been a protection plan for her then...I mean, if it had been, more people, might've known. So I did some research for myself._

_And I...deep, deep in the sub-levels of the company files...I came across pictures._

_Pictures of children in files upon files. And they were mutated by some injection they'd been given, and were dead. With no names or where they came from. _

_They could've been orphans for all I knew or came from families of other agents in the company...and it made me sick, made me worry..._

For every dead child Jack researched, he also looked up dead agents. And he realised, that for every spy listed as MIA (missing in action) they all had sibling or children listed in their files with the same, strange symbol...

...the symbol that represented the Legacy Benefit.

_The word 'guardian' came up more times than I could count...'custodes' kept running through my mind...and I tried my best to wipe my tracks every time I left a database._

_But I should've known that eventually my cover would've been blown if I kept looking. I was part of an intelligence agency that tracked everything and everyone...it was only a matter of time before they would find me...and they did...it just took a while for me to realise, before it was already too late..._

Weeks later, Jack's assigned protection mission was over.

He was discharged to go home for a week before he had to leave again and he was itching to leave England as soon as possible. He'd spent an hour or so in the computer room using a computer to finish his research and his hard work paid off. That night he read through old company files he could access and broke a code on the word INNOCENCE and read something about a program being initiated...but before he could read more, the file said it was corrupted...then shut itself down.

Jack left the room instantly – but not before expertly taking the hard drive of the computer and replacing it with another one.

But the second his card key unlocked his hotel room and he flipped the light switch, he froze.

"What the hell?" Jack glared at the floor.

He stopped walking towards his bed and leaned sideways to look suspiciously around it.

All his travel papers were scattered on the floor.

But he hadn't he kept them all in a folder? He was trained to make it his habit to keep all things orderly and out of sight.

But suddenly all his freaking papers were everywhere?

_Agents tracked and followed me...they listened in on my conversations, not that I said anything about my research. When I was on my missions I was focused on the tasks at hand and I kept my mind and my track record clean...and I never did research until I left._

_At the moment, I felt I had enough information to go on to make me panic, I headed home to Pennsylvania, my mind was focused on only getting home...I didn't even think to look at the things happening all around me._

_I never noticed the air getting thin, or hearing the strange whispers of people around me...I didn't even think way back in the hotel room as I was leaving my mission from London that all the things I brought with me were moving around on their own._

_But I didn't stop and when I got to Ponderosa Airport. After I got in my car, I drove for two hours straight, nearly going over the speed limit. But there were so many potholes in the road...I avoided them, but I grew more apprehensive, suddenly panicking that I needed to get home faster than I needed to._

_I remember I fished out my cell phone, and drove one-handed._

Something was wrong.

Something was telling Jack to hurry home, to make sure Emma was okay, to...to finally confess...to let her know and tell the truth about his secret-spy career.

Yeah, he couldn't believe it...Was he delusional? Did he _want_ to risk exposure for myself? His teams?

But screw it, no one else knew about the INNOCENCE Program, no one else was on it! So he had legitimate reason to warn her!

His heart was pounding with every dark stretch of the road he couldn't see.

_Burgess felt in that moment like it was ten thousand miles away. I couldn't get home fast home enough, and I'd never been more afraid during my career in espionage than I felt in that one moment._

Jack tried to call his house and force her over the phone to pack her things. He hoped that maybe if he moved the two of them, she'd be safe.

_And I knew that my plan didn't make any sense but in that moment I didn't care. I just wanted her safe. I didn't know why my employers were in on her life and wanting her to be a part of this...She was MY sister, and I was HER legal guardian. It was under MY consent whether or not she'd know about any of this...and I wasn't about to let what I saw over the last two years have any effect on her._

"Come on, Em! Pick _up!"_ he muttered hurriedly. "You're _eleven, _you're probably still awa–WHOA!"

Jack pulled his phone away when a loud static started through the speaker. He tried to end the call and redial but the screen flickered.

Jack's eyes grew wide. He was sure that saw a blue spark shoot from–

_ZZICHZ_

"Ah!" Jack's cell gave off a painful static shock and blue electricity zapped him. He tossed the phone into his passenger seat in fear.

He tried to calm the thumping in his ribcage.

What was wrong with his–

_BOOM!_

A second later, Jack had to avoid a giant crater that created itself in the road ahead of him. With a sharp inhale and unblinking eyes, Jack swung his car in a slight drift – on pure instinct.

When he hit the brakes in the shoulder a second later, Jack got out and stumbled against his car. His heart was on fire and he rubbed his head stressfully.

_I never drove that hard before in my life...That was before my days in the Gunner division...but I always had a knack for driving. I drove motorcycles around for the auto shop when I used to work there part-time, remember? 'A need for natural speed' is what my boss used to call it._

Jack shook his head.

He could've _crashed_ if he hadn't just done that crazy move!

But he couldn't think more on it as he rushed over to the crater and knelt on one knee in front of it.

Jack glared at its edges and into its center. It looked natural and it didn't feel hot.

But Jack wasn't crazy – he _knew_ it hadn't been there a second ago. It was like something large and invisible and punched it from above and...

Jack snapped his head up, remembering the other potholes he had to avoid. Taking out the flashlight he still had in his pocket from when he was on his missions, Jack shone it as far as he could back up the road.

His face paled.

They weren't potholes...they were craters too! Just smaller, but they were there.

Jack shook his head and stood up away from it.

"I...I have to tell someone," he mumbled to himself, meaning a spy from the company. If this was some kind of occurrence that could affect or hurt people, he had to report it before the environmental ministry looked into it.

Maybe he'd tell them about his cell phone too. It _was_ specifically designed by the company to be protected against signal interference, and with his screen flickering, his call dropping, and that static shock...that was _not_ normal either.

Maybe someone had finally figured out how to tap into their lines!

'_Oh yeah, you're a real spy now, Jack,'_ he grumbled in his head. _'Paranoid as a mental person.' _

And he spun on his foot, and made a run for his car, throwing the car door open. But when he looked up again, he stopped dead in the road.

Jack's anxiety rose.

In the distance, two people were walking toward him. One was a woman, the other a man who was well over six feet.

Jack glared, and instantly reached in for his pack and pulled out the only two pistols he carried. Clicking off the safety, Jack pulled back up and boldly stood with his guns concealed at his sides.

But when he took another look at them, his mouth fell open.

The woman had...

She had blue electricity shooting from her fingertips and he swore he could see her holding what looked like a rod of lighting...and the guy?

The guy beside her didn't say a word but every time Jack blinked, he saw double of him.

So he backed away, suddenly afraid.

"W-What? Who're..."

_That was the first time I saw a GUARDIAN. Two in fact, and I didn't know it. And I never thought __that I'd end up joining them. _

_I thought, as they came at me, that I was being executed, or suffering from another hallucinogenic nightmare...the kind that involved weird superheroes on Saturday morning cartoon specials Emma and I used to watch when I was a kid._

_I didn't believe they were real...I couldn't...because it was all surreal._

**WHACK!**

_But by that understanding, surreal meant that it would be my downfall._

Someone punched Jack in the back of the head and he blacked out. They then drove him back to Buffalo, to the company, before he even made it to Burgess.

When Jack woke up...

"Nosotros..."

"...shite...

"...aeyt."

_I didn't where they took me, but I knew by the sharp smell that I was back in the company. I couldn't move my feet, something had...paralysed me..._

Jack's eyelids fluttered to keep open.

His brown eyes moved everywhere and he lifted his head as they hobbled him through some brightly lit hallways.

_Whatever had hit me, it felt me immobile, like a toy, but I was awake, and I could see and hear everything...Was it a test? I wasn't sure, but I memorised my surroundings just in case..._

_Hallways and hallways...weird lifts...strange words floating everywhere...and people mumbling to themselves._

"...schützen, right?"

"No, there! υπερασπιστούμε..."

"It's 路从不选你。..."

_I didn't understand most of the languages...but I kept my head up, hurting but memorising...a left, then three hallways down to the right, an immediate turn at the first hallway, then a sprint down to the sixth on the end...it was endless, but my mind, my thoughts...they were racing faster than my body could react._

_Then we hit a hallway that was dark...and they left me there. The room sent me up until I was standing alone in a dark place. It was cold, and I was afraid...even now, I still see it in dark flashes._

_Weird inscriptions...__Blue neon lights in the wall...__The shape of a semi-circle room..._

"W-Where am I?"

_And a high desk...with people sitting behind them in business suits. They had grave expressions. __And every tick of silence, they enraged me...until they said my name._

Jack's eyes narrowed.

_"You..."_

"You're Jackson Overland," one of them said sternly. "Age group K1, from Protective Services."

"I don't want your damn credentials, I found you out, under heaps and heaps files the other spies are either too scared or stressed out to look for themselves!"

His tendency to ignore authority slipped out and he didn't give a damn as he walked up the board members, trying to hide themselves behind the shadows of the room.

And on the side, I saw the two mysterious agents that had ambushed me on the road to Burgess. I instantly looked around the room in a panic.

"Y...H-How did you do that?!"

_I'd never been there before...But I knew that after I'd leave that place, everything I knew might change._

_They started to tell me where I was and why I'd been sent there...The Judgement Room...room, it was cold, and dark, and their voices bounced around like they were inside my head...but I didn't care._

_I remember screaming...accusing them of taking children...killing agents..._

"My sister, my baby sister you were gonna turn her into a what, a spy? What the hell is wrong with you?"

"We don't have to be at liberty to offer condolence to your concerns," one argued hotly.

"I don't _want _condolence. I want _answers!_ Why was my sister on a list with a checkmark on her name?"

"Jackson, it is part of our selection...she was _chosen_ to be enhanced. If anything you should be thrilled."

"Thrilled?!" Jack's voice bounced around the concrete, crescent room. It sent his skin crawling. "I've _seen_ the other kids! The...The mutations!"

And he felt more than saw them bristle up high in their chairs and it gave Jack some level of bitter satisfaction. They weren't spies, or at least weren't anymore – he wanted to shove in their faces how immoral their decisions as executives were.

_How was I supposed to feel? Calm? In control? I'd found out the company that I was working for carried such a dark secret..._

"Give me a reason!" he snarled. _"What,_ may I be so bold as to ask, is _INNOCENCE?"_

"..."

"TELL ME!"

They glared at his ferocity before one of them (after a lengthy, mental debate with some board members) leaned forward and frowned down at his face.

"It is a sub-operation...in response to another program we run, a program _you_ cannot even hope to understand."

_And right then and there, they told me about Project GUARDIAN...the program's mission, the agents involved...the process...and the Center Gene...they told me everything...and I listened...in stunned silence...__For twenty-four years, it had always been for adults...but recently something happened...some kind of 'success' they'd been _watching_ for __years. They wouldn't tell me what but they said that because of it, the gene was going to be placed inside the children._

_And that's what INNOCENCE program made. It was the product of some unknown success...and I couldn't stop myself from imagining it._

_It was designed to make future GUARDIANs...They chose children, especially toddlers and babies, from stable backgrounds without cause to mess up their lives...selected even those with family members already in the company...__Then the Center gene was planted into kids early on so that as they grew, scientists could watch their growth and mutations, until the gene hits its full potential...like some new race of people..._

_To join the company? They never said...but I _knew _that was their ultimate goal._

"And that's the risk we are willing to take," one finished, almost proudly. "Few must suffer for the safety of all."

_When it was over, I could barely breathe with my lungs, barely stand on the muscles I'd built for myself._

_I felt hurt, betrayed...Who knew for all the years I worked here, that under my feet there was a sub-level where super agents, even stronger and faster than me, were working...protecting us as we did our job, and taking out the terrorists and kingpins that killed us for sport...I was almost afraid...until I remembered that they wanted Emma to be a part of it._

_Emma may not have been a baby or a toddler...but they were starting a new age group...and with her in her tweens, she was ideal. _

"I...I-I can't _believe_ all of you! Y-You're _sick!_ If you think I'll let you experiment on my sister–"

"But I've _seen_ the files...all the children you've _ever_ tested on...they've _died._ They've mutated and they've _died!_"

"But she'd be watched over...they all would. Since we have to keep trying to perfect the growth–"

"No."

"_Jackso_–"

"I said..._NO._"

Jack's voice dropped to the same baritone he used on criminals when he felt like running them through.

_I didn't know what happened after that. But my body was shaking and my anger was built so high. _

"My sister will not be a part of this, _do you hear me?"_ he seethed and took a step forward, knuckles turning white by how tightly he fisted them.

"She is not one of your guinea pigs. _No _child is! What kind of company goes behind its own morals and–"

"Why do you _think _we never tell you spies from our standpoint? Your callous attitude blinds you, Jack!"

"Blind callous?!" he shouted. "You were gonna take my sister out from under my nose and...and put something inhuman inside her?! An...And turn her into a freak show?!"

"She'll help save lives!"

"She's not going to end up in a place like this! Not under_ my _legal guardianship!"

"She doesn't have a choice!"

_I couldn't understand how they would have managed to pull it off...I guessed they might have staged Emma's kidnapping..._

"Then _make_ one! Then _YOU_ choose to make something else happen _right now, _or I swear to god I'll expose _all_ of this to...to-I...I-What do you want from me?!"

They were silent and angry. But so was Jack.

His nostrils flared, he wanted to pull out a gun on all them – as terrified as it sounded to him.

His heart was pounding, his skin was crawling, his mouth was dry and he was sweating.

_And I saw her...I saw her standing right in front of me like in the nightmare...but it was unbearable..._

"With her name under protection by the sub-operation of Project GUARDIAN, and by automatic company protocol, _you _are protected too, making all our decisions have priority over yours!"

"Wh...When did that happen?"

_When had I become...property?_

"The same day you joined accepted this offer to join us," another man said grimly. "Everything you are, everything you represent, is what we must safeguard. For _you."_

"...Then _choose_ me!"

"What?"

And Jack's head snapped up faster than he'd ever pulled it. His eyes were seeing red and his heart was threatening to climb up his throat and leak through his eyes.

"Make it so it's me!..._Me!"_ Jack yelled. "Let ME join Project GUARDIAN in her place!"

"You can't!"

"Why not?"

"Because _you_ weren't chose–"

"To _**hell**_ with that! Everything you say is a GODDAMN CH–"

_SLAM!_

"Agent Overland, do you understand what we are trying to express?! Ask yourself **WHY** none of the spies have ever heard of GUARDIAN program! Why it is_ classified!_ This is a _life-changing_ decision because once you're in y–"

"Then _let me_ _in _and change my life so you sick bastards won't touch my–"

"JACKSON! You DON'T understand the severity of what you're exposed to...of what you're asking!"

"Then **make **me understand!...MAKE ME!"

"You agree to this now, and...AND YOU CAN _NEVER_ GO BACK TO YOUR SISTER!"

_I remembered I stopped there...because everything went numb._

"YOU _can't_ go back to being a regular spy, or to your regular life, you...and you can _never _go back to Burgess...and that _includes_ your sister!"

"Wh...Then wh–"

"You're asking to put a biological rewrite inside you! To let it _change _you! You'll _CHANGE_, JACKSON! You'll mutate regardless of the outcome and unlike your sister, this ISN'T temporary!"

_And in those eighteen seconds of my life, I saw my life flash before my eyes. My partners, my family, and my friends...the things I loved to do, the things I loved to eat...they were all laid out for me...and I couldn't breathe..._

Someone sighed and Jack watched another silhouette move.

It was a woman rubbing her face with one hand – she looked stressed and I felt the pressure in the room rise, the anxiety. One of the men spoke again.

"This program was designed for super agents...But the mutation _you_ will go through, will put you on a level of attention that every criminal in the world will want...even police, detectives, the media...the exposure of having something like that won't ensure your safety so we have to protect you. And that means for all our GUARDIAN agents...they can't go back to where they came from!"

"B-But why–"

"DO YOU WANT TO SEE EVERYONE YOU LOVE A TARGET?!" the woman who hadn't said a word finally shouted.

Jack froze as her screech echoed across the stone room. When she shuddered in her seat and took a breath, Jack's mouth fell open.

Dread pooled into his stomach and flared up into his lungs.

The word target had him thinking of all these terrible things.

"I...Wh...I-I c..."

"You could be the_ best_ agent out there, Jack, but one slip up and your sister, your hometown, our state, this ENTIRE _COUNTRY_ could be put a hit list just to find you!"

"So you need to give it up...and _that's_ why we didn't want you to find out. Not like this."

"You mean _not ever_, and I...N...N-No...No!"

_"Jackso–"_

"No, I don't care! I'd sacrifice myself a thousand _times_ than give her up _once_!"

"So what are you saying then, hm? You want to drop her instead?"

_And my hands shook and my body was aching...They laid her out in front of me too..._

"No," Jack fisted his hands and muttered. "No, don't _make _me the bad guy– "

"You want to leave your sister alone?...You need to understand this, Agent Overland, because we were _giving_ her protection for _your_ safety...But you ask what you're asking again, to replace her, to...to sacrifice _yourself_...it means that you _**never **go back to her__._"

_Not unless I wanted to see a bullet through her...or myself after all this, if I walked away without anything._

"B-But I can't even make a phone call? ...Or write a letter?"

_I worried about the postcards...and the snow globes..._

"No, _that_ would be a breach of protocol! A risk on _her_ life, _and_ yours. You know what emotional compromise does to people in this career!"

"..."

"So no, Jack...Not ever. You'd have to cut her virtually from your life...because the Center gene is highly secret and Project GUARDIAN is made up of the world's most elite operatives. And so far, you're the first one in known company history to discover this."

_The INNOCENCE program was fairly new, it just started up a couple months ago...and they were right. I was the first agent to discover it and the first agent to willingly ask to join Project GUARDIAN...and those meant something...but back then, __I didn't understand. Why couldn't they just let me go in secret to see her? Or least let me...look in on her life from time to time...I had proven my resilience and skills in figuring it all out, so I could have easily just watched over one little girl. I argued with myself that she'd never know I was there, and I'd find comfort in knowing I could protect her, like the ghost I was always destined to be..._

_But maybe because they_ had _found out I was snooping around made me lose that opportunity. I was sloppy in some extent, leaving tracks from the files I hacked and researched. So maybe they couldn't risk me leaving to spy on Em in case something else followed my tracks to. _

_And if that wasn't argument enough...If I known about the things that I would've seen__, the things I'd do as__ being GUARDIAN...well then, I wouldn't have wanted to follow Emma. Or look in on Burgess, period._

"I...I..."

"You have to decide, Jackson...because everything you decide on this moment, falls on you. We can't stop the check on your sister without some kind of alternative...it's...not within our power..."

_And I wanted to throw up..._

_But I took a breath, my vision blurred..._

_And I said..._

"O-Okay..."

"Jackson–"

"No! I said I...I-I'll do it."

_For her...In her place._

And Jack head dropped and fell on his knees.

"I'll join the GUARDIANs...I'll take the gene in her place."

"Jackson, you have to understand...You could _never_, and we mean_ never_ see her again. Even from your old life...and that means other family members..."

_Bye, grandma, take it easy...I always do, sugar maple..._

"...friends..."

_Race ya!...You're on!_

"...old colleagues, past co-workers..."

_Oh no! Shit, he sees me! I'm compromised, I'm going down!...He got a noogie and they all laughed._

"...even your past superiors."

_Damon then bonked Jack on the head with his own file...You're a survivor, Jack. That means something. Keep it up, you might run this place one day._

"I...I know..."

"And all you're activity, banking transactions included have to stop too."

Which meant he had to stop making deposits into Emma's account, and her cash flow would cease, and the monthly rents would return.

Jack sighed shakily.

"Wh-When do I take it?"

"You'll need to train for a year, and...and if you pass all the physicals, and reach your limits, then you'll be given the Center gene. You're already 21, so your body's mature enough to accept it."

"Fine..."

"Don't worry. We...We will teach you Project GUARDIAN's tenets and you will see...everything we do, everything we suffer for, it will be for the good of everyone else...You'll be a hero."

But Jack didn't care.

_As long as she was safe...that was all I cared about...so I really was a guardian...through and through._

_But it was like they said...'few must suffer for the safety of all.'_

_And I was the few._

* * *

**One year later, after preparing for Project GUARDIAN...**

* * *

_I trained up until the time I had to they let me go home one last time...this was my last two weeks before I had to leave and train with Project GUARDIAN forever. I couldn't say I was thrilled, if anything I was sick, but I hid it well._

"Come on, Jack! Follow me!"

_I smiled warmly and let her beat me up the hill. I didn't want the last memory of her face to be one without happiness._

"Haha I beat you!"

"Fine, fine! You win Emma!" and Jack pulled up his face and grinned at her. "You always do."

"Haha that's_ right,_ Mr. Overland I always do!"

And when she dropped her hands and smiled up at him, he returned it.

"One more day!" she mumbled and ran up to hug him.

"Yeah..." Jack murmured into her hair. "One more day...Then tomorrow...T-Tomorrow I'm gone."

"But you'll be back again!"

And Jack pulled away and nodded although his breath was shaky.

_My final back story was that I was going to Canada, to a little community __on the arctic island of Alert,__ to visit an aboriginal school. Emma bought it. She always did...and like always, she was more proud than sad that I was leaving._

"Y-Yeah..."

When she sensed his sadness, Emma suddenly didn't want to do anything but sit there with him in the grass. Jack wanted that more than anything – to hold onto the last drops of the lake, the forest...his heart, and his home.

He could never see Burgess again, not unless something followed him and destroyed the tiny, unprotected town. GUARDIAN precautions meant that he could only do missions in major urban settings – but anything consisting of less than 100,000 people meant he could endanger them, unless a giant catastrophe was already happening.

Jack sensed it and grinned.

"You wanna play a game?" he asked, trying to get his mind off his last hours with his sister.

She shook her head a little but Jack tried to encourage her. Every second they weren't doing _something,_ he felt like a piece of him was dying away or slipping through his fingers.

"Come on, it'll be fun. We'll play hopscotch...like we do every day."

Emma smiled a little.

"W-Will you play it with the other kids?"

"Yeah. That would be okay with you, right?"

She laughed. "Of course, Jack! You teach them all the things you taught me! Then, I know you'll be okay."

Normally Emma was so worried. But over the last two years, she was more confident, and more mature beyond her eleven-year-old heart than he thought he'd ever be ready for.

"You look after them, and protect them like we do for each other...like you do for me, okay?"

And Jack nodded even though a spike ran through his chest. Protecting kids? He was only protecting _one._

He'd been too late for the others...and he couldn't protect the ones to come.

"Then, when_ I_ turn thirteen, I'll get a job and help you and grandma!" she boasted happily and started to throw stones into the lake.

Jack shook his head and lay back in the grass with his arms behind his head. He stared up into Burgess' trees like they'd disappear if he didn't.

"Em," he said. "No, you _don't_ have to–"

"But aw, come on, Jack! You were working at the car place when you _sixteen!_"

He chuckled.

"_Yeees,_ but only 'cause Dad wanted me to stop running off around town, remember?"

At the mention of our Dad, we both fell silent. It had been a while since either of them mentioned their folks...but Emma turned as Jack sat up in the grass. She came back to him and grabbed his hands gently.

"I'll help with food!" she grinned and her twenty-one-year-old brother grinned back.

"You already do!"

"Then I'll help pay for the house!"

"You can't make _that_ much at thirteen, you little brat!"

And she stuck her tongue out at him. "Well, one day soon, I'll have more money than you_ ever_ did at sixteen!"

And Jack rolled his eyes but his heart panged – Emma didn't know she'd already done it, thanks to her trust fund and the cheques he cashed in.

"And then..." Jack looked up. Emma was smiling a little as she talked.

"A-And then we can see the world together."

_Then I had leave really early the next morning, when it was dark...around 4 AM. No one slept when I had to go. Emma talked non-stop and my grandmother made poured enough cups of hot chocolate to fill the river in Burgess. __But they gave me the biggest sendoff I'd ever seen...or maybe I felt like it was because it meant so much to me. And while I played it off like a simple farewell as I usually did..._

_...well, I was sure I'd collapse before I made it off our driveway. _

_But I was brave. __Still brave enough to drive myself to the airport – no one from the regular spy division could know about Project GUARDIAN unless they were accepted and chosen._

_And I was strong...until the 'Welcome to Burgess' sign whizzed past me...then it finally sunk in._

Jack's fingers shook so bad though that he had to stop on the side of the road.

He sat there in the seat with the engine running until his breathing became gasps for air. Reaching up, he killed the engine and sat in the dark silence with his thoughts racing.

Suffering for their safety...

Chasing your dreams...

Protecting a future...

His heart was going in palpitation and his eyes flit everywhere in the darkness, thinking someone who appear and kill him for discovering his company's secret.

And he never wanted for it. Never wanted for choice that was never his own.

It was all so much and he couldn't take it...And as his gasps started to choke, he finally couldn't take it.

Jack shut his eyes...he crumbled...

...and he screamed out with every drop of stamina form the bottom of his heart.

When his throat was raw and scratched, he dropped his head against the wheel and cried.

Jack cried...heavily and painfully for the first time in a long time...alone and afraid.

His shoulders were shuddering and he shakily threw his hands up to cover his eyes before he ran them through his hair.

_I didn't want to do anything. I wanted to speed back home and hold my sister until someone told me that the last two years didn't exist...until the last three years didn't exist._

_I wanted my parents back..._

_I wanted the weight of bills and paying rent off mine and my grandmother's shoulders..._

_I wanted to still be back in school, with regular people and be fast-tracking to a career that had never been for anything close espionage..._

_(French) "Merci beaucoup_ (Thank you), Jack!"

"O-Oh m-my god...we thought *cough* w-we thought...no one would ever find us!"

"Y-You guys stopped them! You SAVED us!"

_But all those people I'd saved...all the people I would save,_ could _save_...

_Emma's last words always came flooding back._

"_Goodbye, Jack! Write to me from Noonvu...Noovut...Noovuna__–_"

_"Nunavut."_

_"Right!"_

_Jack laughed weakly._

_"Em, I can't, I...There're no planes that leave Alert Island until I'm ready to leave."_

"_Oh okay...so...so I guess I'll just wait for you then!" and she smiled weakly. "Like I always do."_

_But Jack shook his head – Emma wouldn't know just how final his words were._

"_No, Em. Don't wait around for me," he said gently and rubbed her head._

"_But Jack–"_

"_Em."_

_She stopped. Jack had that tone. She rolled her lower lip in and waited._

"_I'm serious," he said softly. "I want you to keep living your life day-by-day as if I'm always here."_

"_But you won't be," she said with a frown._

"_I will, I...I'll just be invisible, pretend I'm invisible," he said. "Can you do that for me?"_

"_I don't know..."_

"_That way I know you'll be okay b-because you're not waiting around. So you keep smiling for me and you keep having fun like I'm right over your shoulder...Please?"_

"_Okay Jack...I'll do it for you."_

_"That's my girl. And I'll bring you back a Canadian snow globe, alright?"_

_"One with a polar bear in it, okay?"_

_"Heh, absolutely."_

_And I knew I was doing what...I could to keep her from being on a list for something no brother _ever _wants their little sisters to face..._

_If anything, I should've counted my stars and've been thankful for being one of the best regular spies in the company. I don't know what would've happened if my report was only average and I couldn't replace Emma for the INNOCENCE Program of Project GUARDIAN. I probably would've been MIA like the other spies that were listed...and Emma, she...well I don't know _what_ would've happened..."_

___So I went back to the company. I did, I still _did...a_nd I tried my best to make it as positive an outcome as I could._

"Keep your eyes _closed_, bretyam!"

Jack dropped his eyelids again and gritted his teeth. He was so hot he could barely breathe.

But they wouldn't let him out of the vault, not until his five minutes were up. His sweat was pouring down his forehead, down his neck, down his back, and he was sure he'd melt.

"Keep them CLOSED, Jack!"

Jack shut his eyes again and sighed shakily. He tried to give an apologetic smile.

"S-Sorry," he mumbled and his trainer nodded with a small smile back.

"It's alright, bretyam. It's always hard at first."

That's what they called all the agents in the GUARDIAN program. _Bretyam_.

He tried looking it up but he couldn't find what it translated to. It was some unknown language he'd yet to learn – and Jack, so new and afraid of the program, never asked.

_I knew I had to show his discipline. I had to endure the heat, the cold, my bodily needs for weeks, _months _on end. I didn't go on missions for up to a year because they were training me so hard. I got barely any sleep...sometimes going days on just mental willpower – but that's what they wanted._

"Jackson, get UP! You're going to be late!"

"Jack! Hurry, your lesson starts in half an hour!"

"Jack!...Oh, he's gone already?"

_I had to be better than myself. I had to keep fighting it every day. I had to endure it all and come out on top... for Emma...every breath, every moment, every ache was for my sister, and every person, and spy out there who were in constant danger, or in trouble...because I wasn't sure that the minute I failed this and they found me unfit to accept the Center Gene, she could wind up back on the list without my consent. They said they'd keep their promise since they were losing me in one area of the company to be a part of another...and I had to hold onto that._

_So every day I got up, and I confronted my guilt, and my anger...I got stronger..._

Jack held onto the steel bar with an angry gasp. His palms were bound with white bandages. He swung the lower half of his body back and forth until he built up enough strength at his core. Then as his feet were ready to swing forward again, Jack gritted his teeth and tightened his muscles. He shirked the bar with his hands and lifted it to the next rack above him. Then he swung again and lifted the bar again...and _again_...until he was well above ten feet off the ground.

_...I learned faster..._

Jack learned Spanish and French fluently, conversational German, and a bit of Italian simultaneously while he did his training. Some days he went without speaking English, as did most GUARDIANs in training who wanted to learn multiple languages – it was always good to know at least three at their level.

_...I thought quicker..._

"And start!"

Jack pushed and pulled the puzzle pieces with the correct numbers and sizes with controlled speed. Two male analysts walked around him as he sat at the table and watched him and his hands move across the table. The third was a female holding a clipboard and a timer as she recorded his progress.

"What his rate?" on the men asked.

"His speed count doctor is 124 npm...132...141..."

Their eyebrows shot up.

"Wow," one them breathed.

"Well, I'll be..."

Two minutes later...

"Time!"

And Jack's board was cleared of the wrong puzzles and he coded the right hidden message. The analysts looked down at him with a smirk.

"Not bad, son. Not bad."

_...I fought harder..._

"GO!"

Jack lifted his steel rods and matched his opponent's hits in a blur. His frown was apparent on his face, but his eyes were clear and his mouth as tight-lipped.

He put everything he learned about eskrima into that one moment and threw his wrists up to parry the guy's rods coming at his head. Then when the other agent twisted his wrist in to bring his right rod down, aiming for Jack's torso, Jack side-stepped and swung his own right rod out to deflect it.

He then threw his left rod up to catch another swipe at his head and followed back step.

Jack pulled a quick move.

He slowed down his walk just a fraction of a second – but it was enough to throw his buddy off. And the guy swung his arm out too far and caught air, Jack immediately saw the opening and sped up his walk again.

He swooped in, and smacked his opponent in the cheek with his titanium stick and the other keeled back.

The trainers watching nodded their head.

"Good Jack, you're understanding variable acceleration. Fighters should _never_ go the same pace for too long. You have switch it up to throw the other off his game."

And Jack continued to circle his partner like a predator, waiting for him to recovery and ready to go again.

_I made a place of my own in the world I didn't yet understand, didn't yet belong to, until everything I did was second nature and I found what I was good at._

Weeks later, Jack was in the training room with six other agents.

Only the top elite spies were considered by the founder of Project GUARDIAN, so they were all committed to their assignment. When they were done, then he would give them a codename based on a storybook character or a myth. It was weird but it worked.

Then the green buzzer sounded.

They all ran the course, jumping and dodging obstacles to their best ability.

"Show us how you run!" one of the trainers shouted as Jack and the others moved. "Show us how you disappear!"

Some of the agents used their gadgets, some punched their way through.

"Show us that you can become _invisible!"_

Jack used his best skill – parkour. He flipped, vaulted, and wall climbed to his best ability. Agile and silent, Jack burned through the course with a steady heart and controlled breath. When it was over, the scientists reviewed their panels and gave them decisions for the board to be given. Jack's included.

**"Dialysis complete: This agent's progress report indicates that his abilities are best equipped for stealth."**

At his next exam, Jack had to track a member of the CIA for three days without getting caught and duplicate every piece of information about the case he was carrying. He minded his surroundings until the shadows and deception were his best friend. By the end of it, Jack found out every thing to do with a massacre involving the long-time terrorist Pitch Black, along with future hot zones that even the CIA agent hadn't calculated yet. The board was impressed and the scientists did their review.

**"Dialysis complete: This agent's progress report indicates that his abilities are best suited in reconnaissance."**

Many GUARDIANs were. Along with combat – but then came his natural gift for driving.

_I didn't know that the night I was taken by the Guardians was a foreshadow of my future. The night I avoided those potholes, was a testament to my future high-performance driving skills. I practised driving and outdrove most of the agents with precision and speed. And by the end of it, I was in such control with myself, I never doubted myself and my decisions._

_That would later land me in the _Gunner_ division._

_"Twenty-eight seconds!"_ a woman said.

_VRRRRMMM!_

"Shoot! Did you see that drift he pulled?!" Jack's trainers watched from high up in their undercover helicopter looking over Los Angeles. They were counting down how fast Jack could drive his getaway car then break into a building simultaneously.

At the last turn, Jack hit the gear shift and pulled up into _3rd_ then he gunned it. As the car tore across the roof parking lot, Jack flit his brown eyes to the air vent sitting next the entry door. He rolled down the window then shot a grappling hook at it and hit the button.

_"Twenty-three seconds!"_

"Ho, dang! He's pretty gutsy!"

And as the hook started to retract and forcibly tug the vent cover off, Jack opened the door of the driver's side.

"What the hell's he–"

_"Nineteen!"_

Just as the car passed the vent, the cover ripped off and the shaft was opened.

_"Eighteen!"_

Jack bent his back and at the last second, he tucked his body in and rolled out of the car.

_"Seventeen!"_

"Holy–"

The car kept going until it drove off the edge of the roof, bringing the vent cover with it.

_"Sixteen!"_

Jack retracted the hook and shoved it into his pocket, before her dove into the hole without fear.

_"TIME!"_

"Dang, he beat the clock...Now that's what I'm talking about!"

**"Dialysis complete: This agent's progress report indicates that his abilities are best suited for missions with strict countdowns."**

_After the year of advanced training ended, I became what I'd set out to be. I became the strongest, smartest, and fastest of myself, I'd ever been...for the sake of a love that ran deeper than mere loyalty._

_But while I did...I wondered...Do _you_ wonder about the things you decide for the good of others..._

_...Is it worth it?_

Around the same time Jack was finishing his training, someone knocked on the front door and Emma heard her grandmother open it.

She lifted her head slightly and looked out the hallway.

_Is it worth leaving everything behind? Everything you loved, you cherished...in order for it to survive? To be saved?_

"Oh my _god_, E...Emma!? _**E-EMMA!**_"

_Because I'm still trying to tell myself that what I did...what I did...that it can be justified..._

The twelve-year-old bolted from her chair, her skin crawling and her heart in her throat.

"Grandma!? GRANDMA, WHAT'S–"

_...Can it?_

She skidded in her socks once she hit the hall, eyes wide and mouth falling open.

_I keep hoping that one day I'll wake up and I'll feel it...that feeling I always get when I complete a successful mission, and that duty and purpose of _why _I'm doing it, will fulfill me...but it hasn't...for all the missions I've done...this is the ONE mission I don't believe I ever accomplished..._

A man was standing in the door mentioning Jack's name. But Jack wasn't with him – and Emma's heart dropped into her stomach.

_In fact...I think I failed it...and every day I can't get over it..._

"G-Grams..." Emma heaved. "Grams, wh-what's he–What–"

And her grandmother turned with her hand over her mouth.

"He's gone..." she whimpered. "Jack's gone..."

Emma's breath grew ragged and her entire chest felt like something was crushing it from the inside out. Her skin prickled and she couldn't see straight. She shook her head slowly but her eyes were already wet, and her throat already dry.

"No...N-No, y-you're...He–"

Her grandma choked on a gasp and stopped her.

_Because even though I'd saved them...I couldn't save myself..._

"The pl-plane bringing him back from the island crashed...they–"

"They can find him, grandma!" she tried to argue. "TH-THEY CAN FIND HIM!"

"NO, EMMA THEY CAN'T! THEY _TRIED!_ _Nothing_ was found in the blizzard conditions and th...he..."

And she broke down and fell on her knees as covered her eyes.

_I want to believe in this program, in myself...that the light I carry inside me, the one I've always had, will keep me going..._

_(Russian) "Have you mastered your Russian yet?"_

"_..."_

"_Jack?"_

"_It is a requirement of the program...I had to."_

"_Da...You are ready then."_

A twenty-two-year old Jack was stepping into a glass pod in only his swimming trunks.

"_Okay Jack...you've completed all the tests, all your training and your vitals are at peak physical condition."_

He had a hard look on his face remembering the last conversation he had before he stepped into the room. He'd been injected with the gene a half hour earlier.

"_What happens now?"_

"My Jackson...My baby, h...h-he's _gone!"_

Emma couldn't breathe and that tight band that had always been around her chest, though small and wistful every time Jack was away, nearly killed her.

"No...N-No...NOO!"

_But I can't really remember where that light is...not anymore..._

And she ran to her grandma and she kept screaming. _"NO!_ _**NOOOOO!"**_

And she sobbed and cried, heavy and loud as she and her grandma held each other.

"H-H..._He_..._H-He sa_...He said he'd come..."

Jack lied down at the bottom of the capsule and watched as the scientists came in. They covered his mouth with a breather and sealed him in.

"_You'll go to sleep. Then you'll be floating as the gene is administered."_

"_...How long does it take?"_

"_It all depends on you...once the mutation is a success, your vitals will alert of your increasing heartbeat and we'll know when to get you out."_

"_..."_

"_You ready?"_

"_I don't have a choice...but yeah, I am."_

"_Alright, when you get up, Jack, be ready. Everything will change."_

_Maybe my light changed...along with the purpose inside me..._

"He'd said co-come back! _H-HE *SOB* HE SAID HE'D COME BAAACK!"_

Jack then felt the anaesthesia choke him and he fell into a deep sleep.

As his brown, maple-coloured eyes shut for the last time, the pod started to fill itself with blue liquid. It filled to the top until Jack was floating inside. At first nothing happened. Jack's skin just shivered and prickled with goosebumps from the cold water and his muscles tightened in response. But eventually his body adjusted to the temperature and he relaxed in his sleep.

An hour later, the Center Gene stimulant was injected into the stream and floated around him. The gene went into their physiology and swam through their biological makeup, and searched each chromosome until it found _one_ suitable DNA strand to attach to. When it did, then Jack's physical attributes rewrote themselves and his appearance started to change.

And his body started to react.

_I came out a new person...I was physically stronger...and I didn't want for a lot of things..._

Jack floated in his capsule, in the Genesis chamber of the Core, with four other agents also sleeping during their rebirth.

_My gene made sure I__ didn't need to control people to get the job done...I could do missions that didn't depend on others, more just my wit and elusiveness..._

The blue liquid was designed to slow down any advanced mutation and Jack's body eased itself into accepting Jack's sudden mutation. For days, he floated in the pod asleep and unaware. His fingers twitched, his skin started to bleach and his hair slowly went from brown to white. Sometimes when the scientists went to check on him, they'd find his eyes slightly opened like he was seeing something or dreaming – but that was normal.

It also gave them the chance to see his eye colour change, since that was the most common mutation of the agents.

In silent awe, they watched his earthy, brown eyes blur into a soft, dark blue before he'd shut them close again and fall back asleep.

Several times they worried he was experiencing hypothermia since his skin was paling so much but when they tried to turn up the temperature to match his accommodations, his body panicked.

So they lowered it until his heartbeat was regular...the temperature was 74 degrees Fahrenheit. Jack's normal body temperature was lower than most agents. It also meant that he had to stay in the pod longer than other agents...almost a week in fact.

_But the elements were my constant ally and I was sent to the Winter division for missions that took place in colder climates...and where the North wind was strongest..._

_"Hey," one scientist called. "What's he doing?"_

They watched Jack's hands flex in the water and something an underwater current started to churn. At first they thought his center _had _control over the water but then–

_"Oh!" one woman squealed._

The pod started to mist over with cold vapour and they moved immediately to wipe it off. But as they did, they saw the hot breath in Jack's mask grew considerably less until it was a tiny puff. Cold air started to sweep around them like it was trying to get to him.

So they backed away.

But they wrote it down, amazed and happy.

When Jack woke up and they explained to him what my Center gene could do, he freaked out and backed away into a table. And as his hand caught a beam nearby for support, he sent a flourish of frost spread up it like a beautiful design.

"H-How did I do that?" Jack whispered shakily as he touched it in wonder. Then his fingers twitched a breeze threw his new white bangs up.

_I could've been anything or anyone...but I chose this._

"And here," his handler later gave the newly-reborn Jack (who'd finished all his combat training by then) a retractable staff to match his pacifist combat style.

"This is _mine?"_ Jack gasped as he swung it expertly.

"You like, huh?" his facilities agent grinned. "With your gene, you can use it as conduit to create a tiny air current when you swing it! Try!"

Jack took a step back and did four wrist rolls, front and back and was surprised by how much can control he was able to make in the wind. When a long piece of the air followed him, he swiped the staff sideways and let the wind slice a little piece in the wooden desk next to them.

"That's incredible!" he gaped...but then he raised an eyebrow and grasped the hook at the end of the staff.

"But what's with this hook at the end?" Jack asked curiously. "How is this effective?"

"Trust me it will be. The crook facilitates recovery of fallen people and animals and can ensnare their necks or legs."

Jack looked at him again. "You're serious."

And the agent smiled. "You know, in old time's, the Sheppard's crook was a symbol for care, for farmers and pioneers, really. You should think about that."

Jack smirked back gently. It wasn't hard to put two-and-two together: care + GUARDIAN = ironic.

_But did that philosophy still hold? _

_I remember I swore to Damon that I only ever wanted to BE a protector...to guard people...and the GUARDIANs, that's what they did...but not in the passive methods I yearned for..._

_GUARDIANs went on the most dangerous missions to protect the world from terrorists...and that's what I was surrounded by for the next two years of my life..._

* * *

**Over the course of two years as a GUARDIAN...**

* * *

Twenty-three-year old Jack was in the debrief room getting a review from a commanding officer...he remembered his loud voice, his short white, beard and his thick Russian accent. Nicolas, he was called, he was in charge of overseeing many agents in one cluster. Jack only saw him back then as another face, another hand to grip in the fight against criminals.

_Sure, we went on plenty of team-oriented missions..._

Jack heard a scream and looked behind the stack of drugs...he saw a little girl and her mother cowering in the corner of the boat, dirty and scared. He looked around wildly for the trafficker.

When he and his team spotted him, Jack narrowed his eyes.

"_You're ours, tonight,"_ he growled. Then he and the four of them rushed forward.

_And many times, I was more than happy to run my knife through someone who I think deserved it..._

"Argh!"

Jack said nothing and twisted up the knife into the kingpin as he slouched over the brunette silently.

_But most of the time, I was alone...with my thoughts...and my guilt..._

"No, please, _please!"_

Jack didn't blink...and he pulled the trigger.

_I grew more ruthless...more reclusive...and without anyone to talk to, I bottled it up...like the real spy...like an elite operative should..._

"Wh-Who is he, is the one who called the hit?"

Jack stood there staring at them from the other end of the hall.

"No! But how did he get past–"

His mouth was a thin line and he didn't say a word. The second they blinked, his silhouette vanished.

"Wait, where'd he go?"

Jack watched the two security chiefs point their guns in the darkness. Their heart beats increased.

_69 bpm...84 bpm...108 bpm..._

"Dammit where'd that bastard vanish off to?"

_Twelve feet...six feet...three feet._

"I don't...I didn't know...Wh-WHO ARE YOU?! WHO A–"

Jack slipped down over the ceiling vent, grabbed both sides of his head and snapped his neck.

_**"****CRACK!"**_

Then dropping quickly, he pressed the button on his retractable in his left hand until the sharp end extended. With a graceful but violent twist, he pulled up from the ground swiftly and drove the length of his staff into the other chief.

"_G-Gah_...Huhh..."

Jack's face was dead cold steel.

He said nothing, saw nothing, as he shoved the guy into the wall and watched the light leave his eyes from the barred window. When he slumped, Jack pulled out his weapon and dashed away, wiping the blood on his pants.

_I felt my personality change...because my priorities outside the mission were gone...I had no priorities outside my missions...so the bloodlust was constant..._

Jack was with his team of snipers on top of the building. They were watching their target talk with two others until Jack narrowed his eyes.

"_Mil-dots accurate?"_ he murmured as his sniper adjusted his scope.

"_Affirmative,"_ the guy answered. Jack was their team leader so he had to even though the situation was tight.

"_Alright, take the shot when you're ready,"_ Jack breathed then pulled back up into a stand.

He did nothing when ten seconds later, the _bang_ from their rifle sounded. Their target fell dead on the ground.

"_Ok team, punch it!"_ he ordered. _"We've got twelve CSIS agents to save!"_

And they all dispersed.

_But the spies protected the citizens, and the GUARDIANs? ...We protected the spies..._

"Help, call for backup!"

Jack swooped in to help the Greek Minister of National Defence.

He and his partner drove their knives into the head of the kidnappers.

_But where spies see the product of their success...the smiles and relief of the people they save, the kind I missed seeing...We were left the scrapes and bruises of the criminals who made their tortures worse...who made people's suffering more profound._

"Cry for me! _CRY!"_

And Jack had to watch the video of the spies being tortured in order to understand the nature of the criminal in order to find him.

Eventually he'd watched so many of them that he didn't even flinch anymore.

He watched brutal killings, and heard horrific conversations with a blank look and a steady heartbeat.

_The more I saw...the more I...the more I didn't want to share with anyone...or myself..._

Jack and his team didn't say anything as they went back home to Buffalo.

They were tired and Jack's earlier bout of encouragement when they were flying over to arrive was all gone. This mission left him quieter than he normally wanted to feel.

They'd seen fifty-eight bodies dumped and he couldn't stomach that they had to go sleep on this.

And it all went steadily downhill, no matter how hard he tried to put a smile on his face or joke between his lips.

_I was scared but I didn't want to say it...I regretted it but I didn't want to feel it...because every time I doubted myself and wanted to run, I thought of Emma and what they'd do...and what I'd done..._

_And I think that's where I started to hate myself._

_"Jack's waking up! He's waking up!" _they said when Jack's mutation was finally over.

The day Jack's pod heart monitor start to beat wildly, the scientists all grew giddy. They were always excited for the agents when they woke up to see what abilities they'd gained from their genes – almost as excited as most of the agents. Because unlike Jack, most GUARDIANs were asked to join if they performed top notch as regulars – they didn't know or had to uncover Project GUARDIAN's little secrets and sacrifice themselves to join it. Not counting the 'you must never speak with anyone from your old life again part' but that was normally met with a lot of time to think on, time Jack wasn't given because he threatened to expose everyone and they threatened to kill him if he did.

_I wondered what she'd think of me for running...Would she call me a coward? Would she call me liar?_

"Where's the agent?"

"In the freezer...been there for two hours at a temperature of –43 degrees Celsius. See?"

On the freezer cam they saw Jack just squatting on the ground of the ice box with a blank look. He wasn't shivering or anything and without a shirt on, just absorbing the cold into his skin, was even more impressive to them.

_Would she get mad and tell me I had people I promised to protect?...Would she even want to see me?_

_Would I...Did I even want to see her?_

_"Are you sure he's waking up?"_

_"Yes! His pod just beeped! I think his rebirth is over!"_

The scientist with the short beard and glasses saw him open his eyes first. He opened the pod and reached in to grab Jack's hand for support. Jack was so tired and his body felt weird – he felt like he'd woken up in someone else's skin and was wearing it.

_I let this company take over me, take over my life, and destroy the one I left behind...I was pronounced dead a year ago, and I was sure if I ever went back to Burgess, I wouldn't be able to handle a plot next to my parents and the tombstone with my name on it that I _knew _was there..._

_Besides...who'd want the warm big brother you lost, come back from the dead as an emotionally empty and violent killer?_

Months later, twenty-four-year-old Jack was on another GUARDIAN mission. He would finish his reconnaissance in a few more hours, but he needed to lie down from all the stress. He went up to his hotel room and sat on his bed – but he did that several times when he was away and alone on missions.

_...So I shut it out...and I shut it all off... _

Jack looked around the room in a daze. The raining outside was pouring hard and its pitter-patter was driving a headache into his brain.

_I'd seen the worst in humanity...and I couldn't let the fears of my future and the fears of my past affect my performance...Or then I'd lose more people... _

At the exact same time, Emma was sitting her bed looking up at the twenty-two snow globes that sat on the shelf across from her. The rain in Burgess was heavy that night and while she liked listening to it, it only reminded her of all the tears she wasn't done crying.

_I'd become a new monster that killed people..._

Her lip started to quiver.

"J-Jack..."

She then fisted her blanket and cried.

_I knew I could never go back to her...I didn't want to anyway. Not after all the regret I felt._

Jack stared out the window. He imagined Emma screaming if he walked through their front door with his pale skin, white hair, and cold eyes.

"Jack..." Emma heaved. "Ja...J-wh-why did y'..._W-Why did leave me too?"_

Emma would scream, loud and terrified at the sight of him and the way he treated himself.

He couldn't bear it. Not when she was still alive, rebuilding their home, and her heart...at least he hoped.

And Jack couldn't take it.

His eyes stung behind his contacts and he dropped his head into his hands – his breath shuddered and his shoulders shook.

_I never knew what happened to Emma or my grandmother...they wouldn't let me make any sort of contact...No one would help me._

_But then, no one could help themselves either._

When he awoke from the rebirth and returned to his linguistics training and physio over the next few weeks. And for his final test, Jack had to learn _Луна _and everything about oath's that GUARDIANs stood by.

He studied hard and practised best he since it was most complicated language he'd ever seen in his life.

But the Center gene somehow made his memory longer and his learning skills more advanced. He was fluent within in the month.

Then in order to pass...he had to figure out the maze to the Judgement Room.

But he got it, he recited the oath at the final door.

"Greenya undovo aeyt remska det ienoveen ana nuaskvo," Jack mumbled shakily as his fingers twitched. When the Antechamber opened and the wind followed him into the Judgement Room for the second and last time, Jack lifted his snowy-white hair with nervousness.

_In those last moments, walking through that door, I thought Emma running up that hill like she always did..._

His gene prickled and frost appeared at his boots as the wind snapped down. It dropped the temperature in the water vapour around him.

_I remembered the sunlight that blinded me, always giving her a head start...and in my head, that was her sanctuary...I'd always watch her run into the light where it was safe, where I knew her future was waiting for her..._

Jack had this foreboding feeling, he felt this aura looming up ahead. Jack threw his dark, blue eyes up at the only high desk in the crescent-shaped room.

TSAR LUNAR was the only one present in the room.

He sat with his entire body in shadow so Jack couldn't see.

But Jack couldn't say a word. He instead frowned and stood in the center of the room until the mysterious man gave him his codename.

He twirled his staff in one hand and looked down at the ice he'd created at his feet.

He thought he'd have to stand that way in silence for hours.

But then...

The rod across the room start to blinking. Jack look at it then back at the man still sitting silently. It was over? But he hadn't told him his codename yet.

Regardless, Jack took the rod back up to the Core. And when he got there, he was met with the head access agent of the GUARDIAN program and several fully-fledged GUARDIANs.

"But I don't understand," Jack said as his forehead creased. "He didn't give me my codename yet."

"No, he did. Jackson."

_She was my last light then..._

"Bretyam Shad...He said you were Codename..._JACK FROST_...Welcome to Project GUARDIAN."

The twenty-two year-old (back then) rubbed his neck as the agents around the Core clapped.

Afterwards, the GUARDIAN tech analysts listening in uploaded his new identity into all the banks, all the data, and all the files they had in the company, and the board was notified straight away.

_But I still feel it...with every step and every bone in my body...I feel regret for a choice that was never mine._

_And I felt it...up until the day I walked in for my last check-up. _

_Then I lost it...I lost her...I lost everything...all over again._

...

"_A-AH!"_

Jack slipped on the ice and fell.

"JACK!"

Toothiana tried to reach for his arm but Jack landed on the ice anyway. It made a little crack under him but not deep enough to make any effect.

To Tooth though, she thought it would break through and she freaked out, scrambling down to him.

"Wh-What h–"

Jack was panting heavily, and sweat was trickling down his neck. A puff of air left his shaky lips.

"My god..." he whispered. _"O-Oh my god..."_

Jack threw his hands up to cover his face and gritted his teeth.

Tooth was instantly panicking and was holding him by his arms. She shook her head.

"What's wrong, J...H...No, I'm right here. Y-You take a second, okay Jack?" she mumbled. And he sat up on the ice and bent his head a little.

Tooth moved her hands from him and rubbed his back instead.

"Ar-Are you okay?"

"No," he sighed. "...but I...b-but I finally remember..."

He then dropped his hands and look ahead of him. Tooth saw his blue, arctic eyes glassy and distant.

She thought he would have rejoiced...but he looked sad. When she was about to ask, he beat her to it and shook his head.

"I–"

"_Haaa! Hahahaha!"_

They both froze.

Tooth craned her neck worriedly and snapped her neck to the left. They heard the laugh coming from the bottom of the hill.

"_Oh no!"_ she whispered. _"We sh-should hide!"_

And she grabbed Jack's sleeve.

"_Come on! Let's find a spot!"_

Jack nodded and got up. But his face was stuck and his heart was pounding under his jacket.

He even shook slightly and let Tooth guide him.

"_Let's lay down behind this giant–"_

"_No, wait!"_

Before Tooth could say anything, Jack grabbed her around the waist and pulled her down behind a large stone covered in snow – it was shadowed by the trees, and the braches far ahead were thick so no one could make out their faces.

But still gave _them_ clear view of who was walking up the hill.

The visitor though wasn't walking up the hill – in fact, the _visitors_ were walking around it, passing sideways at the frontline of the forest to go somewhere else.

"_Why're they up so early?"_ Tooth whispered shakily as she and Jack leaned close to each other and peeked over the stone to watch the two teenagers walking.

"..."

_"Hm? Why'd you think so?"_

And Jack's breath was shallow and his lips were quivering.

"_Because..."_ he whispered, _"Because that's what we always did on Christmas morning..."_

"_That's what w..."_ Tooth breathed. She looked at him with wide eyes. _**"****What?**__"_

And Jack didn't blink, didn't move.

He only stared, and for all his hard demeanour, he cracked like a broken shield and his heart nearly stopped in his chest.

"_Th...T-That's Emma..."_

A girl that looked about fourteen was walking with a taller boy. But even from a distance, and in what little sunrise there was, he recognised her instantly.

Jack and Tooth didn't say a word as the two teenagers walked through the snow.

They kept their eyes on the two until the two heads turned abruptly and walked back down the hill far back to the neighbourhood in the distance.

But Tooth didn't hear him.

As she continued watching unaware, Jack started to shake.

Something overtook him, the same thing that he'd been suppressing for years.

And in his waking fear, two tears slipped down his cheeks.

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "She is the Sunlight" – Trading Yesterday (Jack and Emma's official song)

**The biggest chapter in the story is now over! Hooray! *throws self out of window* I was scared for _months_ that I'd never get here or even be able to write it - but I did it in five days and I'm super proud! Haha so I hoped you guys enjoyed it (and survived). I used a line from 007: Casino Royale and Good Will Hunting (I disclaim!). If you know them, you're awesome. (: And oh, pop quiz! What's C**_**ustos**_** in Latin? And for additional points, what's Tooth's school, **_**Fay**_** University, Latin for? (: As well, consequentialism is a legit study of philosophy I had to study last year – but I summed it up in like, one line for you so it made sense haha. Oh and the song Jack and Em sing in the beginning is an old Italian song called 'Funiculi, Funicula' – you'll recognise it if you hear it but I can imagine Jack being a goofball with her.**

**I made Jack's parents' deaths as ambiguous as possible. **_**I'm**_** not even sure how they could've died but it involved a disappearance, a state police search, and the arrest of four men. Think on that however you want ):**

**Now take a break guys! You deserve it. Jack's legacy will change in the next chapter. What does that mean? Rest _first_ jeez lol.**


	34. The Second Battle of Belief

**The more and more I write, the more my heart soars. I'm so happy that I didn't stop writing for you guys because this story just continues to excite me every time I check another chapter ****off**** my list. So thanx to ****all ****you guys for reading and being patient, understanding, and invested – I know summer is seriously cray and we're all jetting off to do things but it's very kind of you all (: ****And to my reviewers PMers, haha ****as I **_**always **_**say, thanx forever and always. All**** your thoughts and reactions make me smile,**** laugh, ****and**** cry constantly. ****It's so cool that by some strange, unknown magic we connect on that level :3 Now enjoy, this is the end of the Trust (white) Arc****.**

* * *

**"But if I could shed my armor, lay in your arms, sink in your death, pass through to you...I could dare to love again."**

* * *

_Burgess hidden lake, 6:59 a.m._

Toothiana's mouth fell open.

"That's...That's _Emma?"_

All this time it hadn't been a girlfriend, or another spy.

She imagined (and was mentally preparing to see) some beautiful blonde or redhead sweetheart – not a girl with straight brown, hair and bright, brown eyes.

Wait.

Straight, brown hair.

Bright, brown eyes!

And she had a face...almost similar to the brunette lying next to her.

"Ja..._Jack!"_

Her body started to shake.

"_Is she your–"_

In a flash, Jack backed away a little on his arms and feet.

Tooth looked at him for a split second before she turned back to the scene unfolding ahead of her.

She thought he was panicking in happy shock.

"_I c-can't believe, it! Jack, you...you have a sister?!" _she whispered. _"A-And a brother?! Or are they cousins?"_

She didn't want their voices to echo down but the other two were so far down they wouldn't have heard her shouting if she wanted.

She sat up a little to spy on them again.

"_Wh-What are you gonna say?"_ she mumbled happily. _"What are you gonna do?!_ _How-How're–"_

But a second later, Jack kicked snow into Tooth's face by accident. He didn't apologize.

Tooth spun around.

"_Wait, w-what are you doing?!"_

Jack's mouth was open and he was panting heavily as he kept moving away. The sky above them was growing more blue with the coming sunrise but the shadows from the trees darkened Jack's features so Tooth couldn't see.

The princess huffed. What was his deal?

Jack angrily tried to wipe his face with his sleeve and she didn't understand why – until he pulled away his arm and turned back to the sky.

His jacket wasn't water-absorbent.

And his cheeks were shining.

'_He's...H-HE'S CRYING!'_

_"Jack?! What's wrong?!"_ But he started backing away again.

_"Jack!" _she hissed. _"J...Jackson!"_

_"D-D...Don't call me Jackson!"_

Suddenly, Tooth felt afraid.

She scrambled after him, crawling through the snow so Emma and the other boy wouldn't see her. But Jack was faster than her – his muscles weren't stiff from the cold – and he was drifting farther away. She left their bags in the snow.

"_Jack, you're...J-Jack! Get _back _here!"_

"_...n't see me...Sh-Sh'cnt...s'm–"_

Tooth leaped forward and tried to tug his hand back.

_"Is that your...Is that your sister?!"_ she gasped. _"__O-Oh my god! Y-You have to go to them! You have to see her!"_

But he yanked his fingers out of her grip and kept backing away.

_"N-No!"_

Her grin instantly slipped off her face.

_"Wh-What's wrong with you?!"_

Jack gasped.

His entire chest cavity felt like a black hole and he couldn't see straight.

His bullet wound was suddenly burning – he guessed it was secondary contamination but he–

_"Jack! St..._Stop!"

_"She can't see me!_ _She _can't! _Sh-She can't see me!"_

_"__What are you talking about?!__"_ Tooth coughed in the frigid snow. _"Y-You _have_ to!"_

_"INNOCENCE pr–It...and I–"_

He choked and stopped moving.

"_INNO–e...everything's _gone!_ Ev'rything...b-because of..._H-Haah!"

Immediately, it was like a Pandora's Box had opened in his heart.

Jack felt his body drain with exhaustion and something heavy, heavier than any weight he felt he'd ever carried, was crushing his ribs.

Tooth rushed forward. Her hands were trembling.

"_I-I don't–What's wrong with you?!"_ Tooth reached for his arms again. _"Are you–"_

He slapped her hands away. _"Stop!" _

"_Jack, what the hell?!" _

He looked up at her and in one moment, she moved up to wipe his cheeks hurriedly.

"_Wh-Why are you acting like this?!"_ she panicked but he didn't say.

He looked all around the forest for his answer.

Then, it tumbled off his lips.

_"The INNOCENCE program, and E-Emma she–"_

Tooth's fingers froze for a fraction on his cheeks.

_"What?"_

_"Emma! She...She was..and I...I became a GUARDIAN f-for...and they wa...and they wiped my memory and brought me ba...but I'm–a-and she–"_

_"Slow down!"_

Jack's breathing grew rapid.

_"J-Just calm down!" _she tried to comfort him. But it was hard to when this apparent fear was plaguing the one man she thought she'd never see slip.

_"Just calm down and expl–explain it ca-carefully, Jack! What about Emma, h-huh?"_

She messily tried to dry his eyes because she knew any second he would–

His face split with anguish.

_"Get away from me!"_

_"But I–"_

–and Jack roughly pushed her hands from his face and got up.

He sprung up from the ground with snow caking around his boots and in his hair but he could care less. He then walked away from the rock and the line of the forest, and moved back onto the lake in a daze.

"Wait!" Tooth cried. Her whispers went back to normal and she didn't give a crap. "Don't go _back_ on it! Th-The ice, I-I...you need to think about _her._ You need to go to Emma!"

But Jack didn't listen – he _never_ listened.

But how could he? He felt like all his wounds – every cut, every burn – had reopened, reawakened.

"Y-You said the INNO...the INNOCENCE program?" she asked. "...Y-You mean the one I...th-the one _I..._"

Something like a spike drove itself into her heart as she got up on shaky knees.

"The program..." he kept mumbling. "The program, i-it–"

"No, _that_ way! You need to go THAT way!" and she pointed through the trees. _"_Before she disappears, _please!_ A-And _get off_ the ice!"

"They wanted to use her, Tooth!" he finally bit out and in his rage, he threw out a hand to swing the winds down at the snow.

They sent the snowflakes all around him, making his lungs inhale ice like water. "The company I _devoted_ myself to...they were gonna take her because she was my _sister!_ They were gonna take other children, and I–_Argh!_"

She heaved a heavy breath, hypothermia threatening to creep in.

_"J-Jack!"_

Tooth neared the edge of the lake, her boot afraid as she touched the ice.

"I-I know, I _know_ it's my fault that the INNOCENCE program was built...a-and _I'm sorry!_"

"No, Tooth! Get away, y...you need to get away!"

When she finally looked at him properly, she realised he wasn't even looking at her – his words weren't even _meant_ for her.

Jack was clutching a fistful of his hair...he was attacking himself.

She gulped furiously and bravely stepped back on the frozen lake.

"Don't tell me what to do!" she spat painfully. "And don't _make_ me drag your ass down to see your s_–"_

Jack heard the gunshots of tens of GUARDIANs go off in some distant memory. He moved his eyes through the trees and shook his head a little.

_"JACK!"_

He spun to Tooth. The darker moments of his past kept coming up like vomit. He looked at her, one hand still in his hair, and backed away again.

"D...Do you _remember_ the video, Toothiana?!"

His hand then slipped from his hair, wild and a mess like his heart, and he shouted again.

"DO YOU?!"

Tooth stopped running, boots stiff just as they made it almost three meters to him. She felt herself skid a little but she didn't felt it. As she did, her lips quivered and ice seeped into her bones, closed in around her heart.

Suddenly, the air got colder and crisper.

The wind picked up violently even though Jack didn't will it – his bangs flew up like sheets in a hurricane and his body felt like it was on fire. But it wasn't the same kind energy he felt when he needed to fight – it didn't want to make him go faster, didn't make him feel stronger. It made him feel heavy, like he was going to drown unless he found some way out of it. And for every frigid breath he took in, his pain grew, his quiet guilt rising like molten lava into his heart, into his skin. Like hot brands – like the jewelry Toothiana wore the night in Wales. But unlike her, he couldn't rip them off, tear them away.

"Aster was right!" Jack bit through his teeth. "I am a walking number. I _was!_"

"Don't talk that!" Tooth gasped. "Don't you _dare!" _

"And forget what the founder of Project GUARDIAN confessed?! What I remembered?!"

Tooth shook her head shakily. "But–"

"They erased me, Tooth!" Jack yelled and gulped down a heavy lump in her throat, refusing to back down. In that one moment, she wished, she _wished, _she had a center gene gift she could unleash for all her pent up emotions. But she didn't and in her waking fear (much like Jack's) she could only grit her teeth.

Jack and Tooth were standing in the middle of the lake and neither wouldn't move.

"They _erased me, _Toothiana! But not successfully and they _still _sent me home! And do you know what that would've meant?!"

The ex-operative felt like the princess might as well have been a thousand feet away and she would never understand.

"It...It would've meant that was I supposed to come home mindless, empty, and _broken! _Like a zombie, Tooth! A f...fucking _zombie!_ They were sending me back home like that..to a little girl? To my grandmother!? I..."

It almost felt to Tooth like her heart had dropped through her stomach and onto the ice. Instantly, all these bitter memories of broken families touched her, like fingers belonging to some invisible demon.

She gasped for air bitterly.

"I wouldn't have been _me_ anymore, I would've...been a shell!" He ran through his hair. "And my sister she was...How could do they that to me, to...to all of us?!"

And as silence filled the air, Jack started to move away again.

Tooth panicked and edged out faster onto the frozen surface of Jack's sanctuary. She tried to move around so she was standing in front of him but he kept walking around in a small circle, hoping that the princess wouldn't get close. It was like some cruel joke of tango, just the two of them circling each other.

"Just get off this ice!" Tooth cried. "Go home!"

"Go _home?_" Jack argued. "I can't go home, not like this, not anymore!"

"But why do you believe that? Why are you so hard on yourself?!"

He gripped his hair and whirled on her.

"Because _you_ don't know realise how many people I've killed!"

She froze as it started to snow again. Light and snowfall cascaded down on their heated gazes and flaring nostrils. But Jack didn't feel it, didn't see it.

He heaved a breath.

"Tooth, _count_ for me!"

"...Why?!"

Jack's face darkened and his eyes narrowed to slits. His heart was raging under his chest for all the wrong reasons.

"How many men have you seen me kill since you've met me?!"

"Wh...I don't–I DON'T _KNOW!_"

Why was he torturing himself?!

"TOOTH!"

"WHY?!"

"JUST_ TELL ME!"_

She wanted to grab onto him. She wanted to shove him away. But he wasn't letting her near him.

No matter how hard she tried to push herself across the ice, Jack had more fluidity and walked around her twice. She shook her head and looked at him almost horrifically. Why did he want her to answer so badly!?

"I...I-I..." she stopped trying to chase him and stood wobbly on the ice.

"See?! You don't even know!"

"No! Sh-Shut up and just let me–"

"What? _Guess?"_ Jack sneered and he instantly regretted his rage as Tooth's eyes grew wide and her mouth fell slightly open. His paling complexion got brighter from the orange in the sky.

"Tooth!" he tried again. "You _don't know_ how many, okay?! You don't! So just–"

"Twenty!"

He paused, eyebrows high and forehead creased.

_"How much?"_

"Tw-Twenty!?" she scratched her head stressfully. "B-But most of them you just outran so I don't see–"

"Toothiana, I've killed hundreds_...Hundreds!"_

And she froze, fingers shaking and emotions retching under her turtleneck.

"But you were a _spy_, you saved–"

"I saw it okay?! I remember it now, I remember it _all!" _And Jack threw his hand out like it was right there in the open. "You don't even know who, you don't even know _how! _But I've seen it Tooth, and I...I can't I–"

"But that's all in the past!" she argued hotly. "You need to _move on_ and _start over!"_

"Exactly! So why are you trying to send me_ back_ there? I need to move on, I need to leave!"

"No! What you want is liberation from guilt, but you need to face it, _head on!_ And knowing that you're alive will make her happy! She needs to and she'll be happy to see you, so shut it!"

And for some unknown reason, the image of Mr. Sanderson came to her mind. And she swallowed her lump in her throat.

"YOU NEED TO CH-CHOOSE _LOVE_ OVER FEAR AND YOU'LL ALW–"

"I'M NOT THE SAME JACK!"

And his words came out so guttural that Tooth's eyes grew wide with shock – Jack thought it was fear.

"I didn't m...Y-You see?! You see what I'm doing to you?! To myself, I-I..."

He backed away until he was sure she couldn't touch him unless he got to her first.

"I'm not the same Jack who...who only chose missions to protect and save people even though he was more than capable servicing take down units. A-And I'm not the same Jack who wanted to prove that there were more ways of _stopping_ violence than _making_ it...and I am not...I-I am _NOT_ the Jack who sacrificed himself to the GUARDIANs and let all the bad consume him at his _core! _Because he's _gone!"_

"What do you mean g-gone!? Jack, you're right here!"

"Heh, yeah I'm a survivor," he growled darkly and thought of Damon. "I'm a_ fucking_ survivor and look what happened to me! Look at what I'm capable of!"

"Because you were trying to do good by your sister!"

"Because I shut it off!"

Tooth's eyes were wide, her pink lips a deep set frown. She didn't have to ask to know what he meant – the cold eyes, the monosyllabic responses, his detachment from everything around him.

"B-But..." and the lump in Toothiana's throat threatened more tears up to her eyes. "But-But not anymore! Y-You can be with her and that'll go away. S-So stop being so _damn_ ridiculous, Jack!...She's your _sister_."

"That's right, she's my sister, Toothiana," he argued. "And I'm the dead brother whose _never_ coming back!"

And when he crossed his arms defensively she felt a surge of anger swell inside her.

"Jack...I swear to _God!_" she heaved. "This is about having _everything _you ever wanted again–"

"She's _safe_ now, Tooth, and that's _all_ that matters–"

"–and if _I _knew for one _second_ that one of my sisters was at the bottom of that hill, my legs would _never _stopping running–"

"–and whatever sorrow she still has over me, it'll eventually heal–"

"So you _need _to fight! _Fight for her!"_ Tooth pleaded. "Fight it! Like you _always _say to me–"

"–and then she'll move on–"

"BUT SHE NEEDS YOU!"

"SHE DOESN'T NEED ME, DON'T YOU GET IT?!" And Jack advanced on her while she found it difficult to back away on the ice. "NOT ANYMORE!"

Tooth's eyes grew wide with slight fear but it snuffed out just as quick. She tightened her fists and glared back with wet eyes and a rage in her chest.

"You _don't _KNOW THAT!" she shouted back as he towered over her. "Family _is family!_ You ALWAYS need each other!"

And for every scream, Tooth imagined hers and the families left behind. She also imagined the families they'd run into and the ones she and Jack had made amongst total strangers.

"She still needs you, Jack! Y-You don't think she'd cry over you and worry about her future without you in it?!"

"With the money I left her, she'll be fine when she grows up!

"That's not the same! It never is!"

"I _can't _go and see her! Why aren't you understanding this? I CAN'T GO, _NOT LIKE THIS!"_

"Not like what?! Her _saviour?!"_

"Like a _killer!"_

And he finally said it.

"And don't you _dare_ think for one second that _that _means I stopped caring about her!"

"NO, I know you do!" Tooth shouted back, feeling that one dollop of sorrow drop into her stomach. It spread through her like wildfire but she swallowed it down. "You cared too much that's why you're _doing _this to yourself! But you don't have to anymore!"

Jack wasn't getting it but she wasn't letting him go – she had too many times to look back on that she knew she _never_ could.

She shook her head and glared up at him defiantly.

"Th—Thinking you're a killer _doesn't_ trump that! Y-Your love for Emma can over arch _everything, e_verything you _feel. _She's always mattered more, hasn't she?"

"..."

_"HASN'T_ SHE?!"

"SO YOU'D RATHER I WALK DOWN THERE RIGHT NOW, THE WAY I AM, AND DESTROY THE IMAGE SHE'S CARRIED WITH HER ALL THESE YEARS? IS THAT WHAT YOU'RE SAYING I SHOULD PREPARE FOR INSTEAD?!"

"WH...BUT YOU–"

"TOOTH!" Jack finally shouted in anguish. "Look at her! _Listen!"_

Tooth stopped to catch her breath, her heavy heart rolling like thunder under her chest, and her breath rapid and trying. She didn't turn her head away but a second later–

_"...Haaa!...Hahahaha!"_

A girl's laugh far off in the distance was heard again.

And when Emma's laugh faded away, Jack's face physically twisted with pain before he swallowed it down.

He turned back to Tooth.

How the entire town of Burgess wasn't waking up to their screams was beyond her – maybe there _was _something sacred about the frozen lake.

"You see?! She's happy again and anything I do now will backfire...on _me!"_

Jack fisted his knuckles until his veins were visible underneath.

_"_This isn't like some damn kid's movie where ghosts come back to life and everyone's happy. This is a nightmare..._I'm_ the nightmare!"

_W-Why d-d'you have that, Toothie? Why do you have a gun?!_

And Tooth's breath shuddered.

_This isn't like you, Phi (older sister)! What happened to you?!_

She kept looking up at Jack and he was staring down at her with the same level of bitterness, thinking about all the nights he sat awake with his head in his hands.

_...I-I don't know you anymore...__  
_

Tooth had wanted to run away and curl up in the dark when she remembered the utter look of fear and shame on her little sister's face.

Jack rubbed his tired eyes.

"Do you get it _now?!"_

She didn't answer his question – but her short gasp for air was a response as any.

So Jack looked down to avoid seeing her eyes. His own blue orbs glared shamefully as he unclenched his shaking fist.

"All this blood is on my hands for Project GUARDIAN...I _broke_ my promise to her. I promised I would always protect people for her...B-But I caused more violence than I wanted to stop!"

Suddenly, Jack's eyes grew wide.

A second later, he was looking at the growing sunrise in high above the pine trees. His breath left his lips as the orange continued to grow but his heart, his head, were in two entirely different places.

He felt stuck.

Just like he always seemed to be.

His boot took a cautionary step back.

"That's why I don't want you with me."

Tooth snapped her head up at him.

"...Wh-What?"

She tried to tell herself that her heart wasn't beating painfully.

"I don't want you!" Jack bit out. _"You_ or _anyone else_ near me, I..."

The light only seemed to scare him – like he didn't deserve it.

"Pitch was right. I make of mess of everything, I-I...I can't stay around anyone."

"But you're with me!" Tooth looked up at him. "You need to _trust_ me!"

"And then what? Watch you get a bullet through the back for me?!"

Pitch's words from the night they fought came bubbling to the front of Jack's mind and he panicked.

_And that's not what you'd want...is it, Jack?_

He shut his eyes.

"Tooth, I twisted your arm...and Aster, I...grabbed him by the_ throat_ when I first woke up."

Tooth's wide grew wide.

Just as quick, Jack's eyes opened darkly.

"And don't forget about that guy at Hue's bar! The one you watched me snap like a rag doll just because he touched me...I'm a freak just because you _all _touched me!"

Tooth kept shaking her head but he wouldn't stop – it was like oil, just slipping off his tongue.

"But you, w–we...He was only...Are you se–"

"And I can't guarantee it won't happen again so if...if you think for one _second_ that going back to her like _this,_ because it's the _right thing_ to do then, tell me, _princess_, what happens if I don't recognise someone, or someone surprises me and I–"

"Because you won't!" she gasped. "You have to hear what _I'm _saying! This wasn't your fault! It was the company who chose your sister, a-and then they made you give her up for a life that you didn't want!"

And she wouldn't dare tell Jack that the second he switched back to calling her 'princess', her heart twisted in her chest.

"I...I don't know how else to make you realise that _this,_" she gestured around the forest and down to where the teens were far in the distance, "_this _is the place that will make up for it again! It'll bring you back, it's...it's already started!"

But Pitch's words came floating back to him again.

_All this to atone for past guilt you feel because you have nothing left to lose, how marvelous..._

"Tooth! I can't _ask_ for redemption for all those past people I've killed?! Because I..."

"Because what?"

"I..."

"Because _what_, Jack?!"

"Because I wanted them dead, I wanted them _all _dead and I didn't care! And for a lot of new criminals I _keep_ running into...I _still_ want that!"

Tooth made a sound in the back of her throat and closed her mouth immediately.

But if Jack had turned back around, he wouldn't have assumed that her silence meant she was ashamed – she was actually frowning _for _him, not _at _him.

His eyes were dark and stormy, and his throat was raw.

In the midst of it all, his gene was crackling across his skin, erupting his core.

"If someone so much as looks at me funny I feel like I need to stalk them, if they get on my bad side, I can't guarantee a fight won't start, and if someone threatens even the slightest thing I have near me–"

_"__AAAHHHHHHH!__" Jack spun instantly and rushed forward. A murderous expression erupted on his face and he was already reaching for a newly-bought knife in his police belt._

"–I react like my life depends on it. Because that's what been ingrained into me, _severely _and _permanently!"_

He turned back to her finally and threw his hands out. His eyes drank in everything around him like they were driving knives into his chest.

"So I don't _deserve_ THIS, or HER, or–"

Jack stopped when he caught eyes with two jewel-pink irises.

And his breathing grew rapid.

Tooth's mouth opened to say something but he quickly glared at the ice again and gritted his teeth.

"I don't _want_ a restart, I don't! I _can't_!"

Pitch came back again and he couldn't stop the spew of words that constantly came back.

_Your duty keeps you bound to such terrible, __terrible __things and when they're over, you start to wonder if there's even a piece of you left to save. Any piece left even __worth__ saving._

"All I have _left _of me that I can give, is to do good by the people I'm protecting now...All I can do is _do_ what I can for you, princess. But I swear to god, don't you _trust _me. Not anymore!"

And when he looked at her again with a hard gaze, she shook her head violently.

Tooth gripped both sides of her head.

"_Stop _calling me princess!"

"Pr–"

_"Don't! _And you can't tell me who I can and can't trust! Because I trust you, Jack! I _do!"_

"But you shouldn't!"

"And whose fault is that?!" she screeched. "You_ made_ me!"

When his breath caught in his throat, she took the opportunity to keep going.

"Y-You asked me_ twice,_ Jack, and I did, for a window jump and a road trip! And y...you can't just take that back!"

"Yes, I _can,_ Toothiana!_"_

"No," she argued, a hot sting started to build in her tear duct. "_You _just want to continue keeping me at a distance, _that's_ what you're saying! Because you're stupid!"

"No, I'm _not!_" he growled.

"YES, YOU ARE!"

"Because I've _stopped _caring about anyone for a long time! I'm only doing my _job!_"

"And that's why you're stupid!"

When Jack glared back hotly, her nostrils flared.

"That's _crap_, TOTAL CRAP! And I know I shouldn't that word up here because I'm pretty sure this place is holy but you're _wrong_! Otherwise, y...you wouldn't have cared about _me_, Jack!"

And when he tried to stalk past her, she reached out and grabbed his arm.

"LOOK AT ME! WHY DID YOU STICK AROUND?!"

"Toothiana, lay _off!_"

"At any point when we met North, the ELFs, and Edmund, you could've left me with them and never come back, but you didn't! And do you know why?! I'll tell you w–"

He ripped himself away from her, hating that their argument was destroying the peace in the one place he always found comfort in.

Jack then turned back to face her.

"This was all a mistake...I shouldn't have...I-It would've been better if we'd never met then I wouldn't have remembered–"

"And then what?! All my sisters and I would've been kidnapped? Edmund would've never found the list of GUARDIANs still being assassinated? And _you'd_ suffer from flashbacks for the rest of your life?!"

"You know what? Yes, maybe that would've been better for all of us," he sneered.

Tooth froze, eyes growing glassy, but he kept dropping words on her like an avalanche.

"Because then,_ you_ wouldn't have found out your sisters were clones! North and Aster wouldn't have had to deal with _both_ of us and continued focusing on their real priorities with protecting the rest of world, not chasing after mutants with amnesia! And I would've _never_ been reminded of all the bullshit I went through if I hadn't come back here!"

"That's not bullshit! THAT'S YOUR _LIFE!"_

But he roughly nudged her aside and tried his best to walk around her.

Tooth whirled on him, her eyes were sharp. Her heart was going into overdrive, fearing every second the time ticked away and the sun got higher.

"Jack, shut _up!_ Or did you forget the night you saved me?!" she heaved. "You lunged at me, _with a knife, _but you stopped! You _stopped_ and then y-you _untied me!_ A-And you cut my skirt so I could run faster–"

"Only because I just saw you as a way to find Pitch and recover my memories! But look how well _that_ turned out!"

But Tooth shook her head.

"No, I don't believe that...I don't believe it for one _second!_"

"Well then you're a fool, princess! Because I never cared, okay?! I NEVER CARED!"

"Y-YOU'RE LYING!"

Jack abruptly turned away.

"I _know_ you're lying! I KNOW IT! Maybe...M-Maybe back on the plane when we first left Vietnam I would've believed that was true but not now! Not anymore! You've done so much and–"

He started walking off the ice.

"Stop trying to push me away! Stop _it!_"

He wasn't listening.

"JACK!"

He was almost at the edge, ready to leave her standing on the ice – and her breath rattled in her lungs and a deep sorrow erupted from her lips.

"JACK!...Just...J-Just stop! STOP!_"_

But he kept walking and something deep inside Tooth realised that if she didn't get through to him now, she'd lose him.

"You need to let me in! PLEASE! Because you're lying! YOU'RE _LYING,_ AND I..."

She sobbed.

"A-AND I DON'T WANT YOU TO BE ALONE ANYMORE!"

A heartbeat.

A sob.

And a boot hanging just over the snow.

Jack froze.

He stopped his body, letting the silence hang over them. It was so surreal, so loud and quiet all at once...but Jack was giving her, despite himself, that one tick of time to change his mind – even though he didn't realise it.

But she did, and Tooth drove it forward like her life depended on it.

Like _his_ life depended on it.

"I_ DO_ GET IT, JACK...I-I _do!_" she cried. "I know you ha-haven't trusted anyone since you woke up to a bunch of strangers who supposedly left you to die and...a-and I _know_ that youère trying to good by Emma and the rest of us by keep yourself at a distance but..."

She balled her hands into tight fists so he wouldn't see how much they were shaking. And she _refused_ to throw up.

_'If that happens, I'm digging a hole and I'm never coming out!'_

"But this _isn't **right!**_ And this isn't you, I _know _it's not! You _don't _scare me anymore!"

"Oh yeah?!"

Then Jack turned sharply.

A second later, his gun appeared.

Her eyebrows flew up, heart racing.

"Jack!"

It hung at his side, his grip loose and his pointer finger resting against the barrel, but his cold gaze was on her.

Tooth couldn't breathe.

"Wh-What is this?" she demanded shakily. "You're gonna shoot up the only place left that matters to you?!"

He didn't answer.

Instead, he gritted his teeth and a second later, Jack threw the gun on the lake between them.

The smooth steel slid across the surface and almost immediately, his black titanium staff (elongated to its full six feet and crook at the end) carelessly joined it.

Tooth said nothing as they stared at the weapons – Jack's eyes were murderous and he was grinding his teeth.

"That, right there, is my _life, _Tooth!" he snarled and pointed down at them before ripping off his glove.

"And _this,"_ he spat lifting up his left palm so she could see the scar in the middle, "is a reminder that I can never leave it!"

She shook her head though and rushed forward to collect the weapons, but Jack wouldn't stop.

"And my hair's not brown and my eyes are blue!" he shouted and clutched his head. "So WHO am I, then?! I'm not Jackson anymore, Tooth! I'M NOT!"

Suddenly, he couldn't breathe.

"H...He died a long time ago," his breaths grew labored and shallow, "but I'm...I-I'm _still_ drowning...in the lake of memories he left behind."

And Jack fell on his knees on the ice.

Tooth watched a flourish of powerful ice spread around him as the wind threw up everything around him like a crater.

Jack's heart beat wildly.

"Suicide was _never_ an option," he breathed shakily. "B-But I...that night, I swear to _God,_ the Purge...I should've been–I-I _should've_..._I can't go on like this_..."

And a silence fell on them, like lead and a shower of knives. Tooth couldn't handle it, couldn't handle the words that left his lips.

"Bu..._But *sob*..."_

She was on the ice still trying to pick up his things but it was hard because her eyes were blurry.

"B-But it was _never_ you_..._it was _them_, okay?! I-It was _them!_ A-And they hurt _all of us!__"_

Jack's fist tightened.

"So I want to _help _you carry that burden! I've been here every step of the way to helping you remember who you were be-because _I know I'm to blame_...I know it a-and I'm _sorry!_ The INNOCENCE program was because of me a-and my sisters and..."

Jack's heart started to race.

But even though it's loud pounding and hot sting above his heart nearly consumed him, he heard Tooth's sobs like a hammer to a glass wall – hard, clear, and upsetting.

"I want to help you, Jack! Please..._please!_"

Toothiana hated to plea, she wanted to reason. She was nowhere as good as reasoning with someone as he was, but she felt the only way to get him to listen was to say what was from the bottom of her heart.

So she did.

A second later–

_Clatter!_

Jack opened his eyes.

Tooth dropped his staff back on the ice. Then his gun. And a moment later, she pulled out her own guns and threw them down too.

Then she gulped and stepped over them.

"I-I care about you, Jack. _A lot_ of people have, a lot of people _do,_ e-even if you don't care about yourself," she said shakily and squeezed then ends of her scarf tightly. "So don't you _ever_ call me a fool again!"

And Jack kept watching...but his eyes were unreadable – hard and blank.

And Tooth hated it. She shook her head a little.

"I d-don't get a lot of things. I'm not fast, and I'm n-not strong...b-but I-I've a_lways _cared!" she mumbled. "And you've _known that_ but you're just too...too ch-chicken shit to accept that!"

Jack's eyes widened slightly.

Was she calling him out?

She kept slipping as she inched toward him. But each step was sure and long, and she'd be damned if she let her short strides make him disappear.

"I worry about you all the time! And when you run off I...I don't when you'll come back or if you'll be okay!"

Jack kept looking at her wobbly feet, pretending he wasn't listening to her talk, trying to block it out.

But he didn't realise when he started to sit up on the ice and stretch his arms out slightly as she came closer.

"But I've believed in you early on!" Tooth huffed not really seeing the gesture, just desperate to make him stay. "I _knew _you w-were a good person, even when you di-didn't think you were! And isn't _that_ why you said we were...w-we were friends?"

Jack's hands fell down slightly. His mouth fell open just a bit.

His gaze flew up.

"W-Wh...To–"

Tooth was so cold by that point that every twitch she had she barely felt. She might as well have cut off a limb but she ignored it – all except for the beating in her heart and the quiver in her lips.

She remembered Aster's words before he left the two of them.

"You're my friend now, r-remember? So I'm...I-I'm obligated to trust you, and I _want _to...and I've been cheering for you b-because I have faith. This world, it's a scary place a-and...I _know _you were trying to prove to everyone and to yourself that there are other ways to deal with it, to _handle _it..."

Jack still kept his blue eyes on her rosy face.

"But I have faith_ in you_...even if you don't in yourself!"

His eyes grew wide.

"Tooth...T-Toothiana, what're you..."

"You're _her _hero. You're_ their_ hero..."

And when she stopped right in front of him, she looked down at him when a tired breath and an open frown.

"...and you're _my_ hero."

Jack's eyes grew wide.

And the beating in his chest nearly stopped.

He tried shaking his head a little.

"T...Tooth...d–"

Toothiana tried to kneel down on the ice. She bit her lip and carefully lowered herself. And when her left boot slipped a little, Jack shot out his hands instinctively and steadied her.

Once her knees touched the ground, he pulled his fingers away and brushed them against the frozen lake. As his fingertips touched the ice, they sent the frigid air to sweep around them, hardening whatever moist water was sitting on the surface.

Then Tooth knelt in front of him, afraid and cold, as the wind blew her hair around and she shivered like a there was no tomorrow – but Jack didn't see it.

"You...b-but I'm not..."

"Yes, you _are,"_ she nodded slowly and her eyes grew glassy.

She turned and pointed at the weapons they'd left behind.

"Those don't define you," she argued. _"__Nothing_ defines you but what's in _there_." And she looked nervously at where his heart was. "Th-Think about everything you've done for the sake of g...getting it done. Was it really f-for you?"

...A drop of silence.

Then, something panged in Jack's chest. Something he kept trying to suppress.

Tooth's question.

It was so simple. But it resonated from deep inside him that his mouth opened and his chest hurt.

And when he answered the question, he shook his head.

"No."

Without even having to think about it.

He looked down on the ice, inhaling like he couldn't breathe.

"It w...wasn't for me. I-It was never for me."

"Then what did you do?" Tooth asked shakily. "A-And for _who?_"

"I...I worked two jobs...f-for my family," he finally confessed. "I went to university...for my parents...A-And I took that job...because I wanted to protect other families..."

Tooth's eyes grew wide. Jack's shut tightly.

"I ga...I gave myself up... to be a GUARDIAN for her. I saved her...a-and I rescued you..."

And when he opened his eyes, he looked down at Tooth, heart still pounding. "...because I knew I couldn't leave you behind."

For a moment, the two of them just sat there, feeling their pent up emotions rising like the sun behind Jack.

Then Tooth smiled a little. She was so tired of frowning.

_"_I_ told_ you," she murmured. "So d-don't be afraid. Don't be afraid anymore."_  
_

But he _was_ afraid.

In fact, Jack was terrified!

And he was terrified...because he saw the thing that North and his dreams kept trying to tell him all along.

Suddenly–

_Beep beep! Beep beep!_

Aster left Jack a digital watch in his backpack and it was set to go off at sunrise. An old hiker's trick. So at exactly 7:21 a.m, the lake around them lit up.

As the sun finally hit the horizon and the orange engulfed everything, Tooth radiated like a warm (but chattering) sparkle of light.

And she lit up all the dark spots in his heart.

"You're s-serious...but I..."

And she nodded her head again and wiped a corner of her eye.

"You're my hero, Jack."

Jack's eyes grew wide.

He suddenly couldn't breathe.

Tooth looked up at the brunette.

"So _you_ have to believe in yourself," she said gently. "Like I do, o-okay? Like Emma would, l-like your parents, like–"

But she froze when she peeked up at him through her mess of tears.

Jack had a look on his face. She lowered her hands slightly with her mouth slightly open.

"J-Jack?"

His head was still spinning. He couldn't see her straight, and something about the Burgess lake around him made him suddenly want to cry. But he couldn't again, he wouldn't he–

Tooth bit her lip and moved forward. She pulled him up and when they were both standing, she wrapped her arms nervously around his middle.

Her touch made him tense up but Tooth gripped tighter.

"Count to ten, Jack," she whispered. _"Count to ten."_

He choked slightly.

But he nodded his head and slowly lifted his arms.

"O...One..."

"...Two..."

Emma's smile and his parents' pictures shined on him.

"Three..."

"...F...F-Four..."

His laughter and racing with his friends made him weak in the knees. The university textbooks he once carried made his arms feel like jelly.

"F-F..._'ive_..."

The cries of hundreds of rescued people and tearful reunions echoed through his ears.

"S...Six..."

Jack's biceps gripped Tooth tighter around the waist than he'd ever thought he hold her. His head dropped on her shoulder and he tried to hide himself in her thick hair.

"Sev...S'vn..."

"...Ei-Eight..."

North and Aster and ELFs brought a fire to his heart, the right kind of fire that drove him with legitimate reason and duty.

"Ni..._Nine..."_

He shut his eyes tightly.

"_...Ten."_

And a heart-shaped face and jewel-pink eyes in some faraway, unknown memory made his lips tingle and his heart explode.

He felt his body freeze for just a millisecond.

Then Jack bent forward, bending Tooth back slightly in his aching grip. She moved her hands behind him to grip his shoulder and his hair as he turned his face into her neck.

He exhaled, and when he breathed in, he felt it.

He felt his entire body tingle with something old and forgotten – that feeling of receiving love and warmth in his life.

And he exhaled again...and for the first time, he didn't feel like it weighed him down.

Tooth tried to pat his back awkwardly (mood-killer as she always was) but her intentions were sincere.

"Choose love over fear, Jack," she mumbled, repeating Mr. Sanderson's words, "...and you'll always win."

And he nodded as he peeked through his lashes.

Jack then pulled away until they were at arm's length.

She looked up and he looked down between them with a sad look.

"Y-You know...that whole time, I..." he lamented. "I thought I was just some tool in a war."

He then looked at her.

"But y-you're right...I always had a reason for fighting...It was _never_ just about me."

Tooth said nothing as Jack shook his head.

"The board may have screwed me over, but being a GUARDIAN _never_ did, I...they had the same principles I always wanted to carry. We just...(he furrowed his eyebrows) tackled it differently."

"It was designed to help you save the world," she agreed and moved out of his arm-hold to wipe the remainder of her face. And she chuckled weakly.

"A-And I'm glad I was able to do it. I want you remember that, to _always _remember that, okay?"

Jack nodded again.

"...Okay."

She started to squeeze her scarf again.

"You're not a freak. Y...You're not me. And I'd save you_ a hundred _times before someone saved me, got it?"

Even though he paused, she moved to grab his weapons off the ice again.

But Jack kept staring at her.

He bitterly remembered Pitch.

As Tooth tossed him his staff, she accidentally kicked his rifle a little bit away.

"Oh sorry," she mumbled tiredly and walked after it to a part of the lake they hadn't touched. Jack watched her closely.

She grabbed the gun. But then–

_CRUNCH!_

"OH!"

Tooth's boot sent stress cracks erupting under the pressure of her sole. And in a scream, half her foot went through.

Tooth prepared to brace herself on the weak ice around her horrifically – then something ensnared her waist.

Jack pulled his staff back and yanked Tooth to him with the Sheppard's crook.

In an instant, her back slammed into his. But as she turned to grab onto him, he lost his balance on the ice.

Dropping the staff, Jack threw his arms up to catch her. Then he fell, dragging her down with him.

She fell on top of him as his head hit the ice. His gun was tight in her hand.

"You okay!?" she gasped.

He nodded and stared at her through the sun and falling snow.

"You sure?"

"Y..." He stopped.

A hot blush came on her cheeks when she realised she was an inch away from his jaw. And in the close proximity, rather than smack him (like she always seemed to default to), Tooth's accidentally exhaled a nervous breath over his face.

Jack didn't say anything for a moment. His lips tingled with the invisible touch and some unknown memory stroked the back of his mind again, elating his senses.

He exhaled nervously back.

She felt it blow all the cold away from her jaw for a moment, sending shivers down her neck, down her body.

"S-Sorry!" she hastily got up and tried to give Jack space. Jack got up quickly too, fixing his jacket and putting away his weapons again. When he was done, he looked at her.

She was trying to push her thick hair behind her ears but it kept flopping in her face. When she gave up, she tried to move around him to get off the lake.

_'Better get off before the rest of it melts and w–'_

"You're not a freak."

Tooth stopped just behind him but didn't turn around.

She kept her eyes straight ahead through the forest with the sunrise overhead. Jack was still looking down at the frozen lake beneath his feet.

"Don't worry, Tooth," he said seriously then blindly grabbed her hand from behind. He rubbed her knuckle gently.

"I'm not giving up on you."

"And I'm not giving up on _you,"_ she said back firmly. But then she nudged her chin at the trees in front of her. "...And you shouldn't give up on _her _either."

And Jack sighed.

He turned around and walked around Tooth back to the edge of the forest, almost nervously.

When he poked his head over the rock and stared off in the distance, he saw the outline of Emma skipping in the snow so far away. But his heart didn't ache as much.

Tooth appeared beside him (still shaky with a foot soaking) as he began to speak again.

"It's...It's been almost four years since I've her," he mumbled gently. "She had all her baby teeth falling out. Now look at her...Sh-She's almost a teenager."

Tooth looked back at Emma and the boy jumping through the snow. She bit her lip.

"Jack–"

"No, Tooth."

She looked back up at him nervous that he had an upset look again. But his gaze was wistful and, though almost heartbroken, there was _something_ there that she couldn't describe.

"I can't. I'm...I'm still a different man from the one she knew. And we've both changed. Me coming back now as I am, it...it won't help anyone."

"Not _yet, _at least," Tooth offered and Jack looked down at his pale hand.

"Maybe, Tooth. But...But we still need to leave today."

Tooth touched his arm.

"Promise me," she said sternly. "You have to _promise _me that you'll...you'll see her again. One day. And I'm saying this on behalf of every little sister wh-who needs their b-big brothers."

Then he turned to her.

"And what about big sisters?" he said softly.

Tooth shot him another smile. "Big sisters too."

And before either of them was prepared for it, a tiny smile appeared on Jack's face. He then lifted his hand slightly and rolled his wrist – before he hesitated.

Being more perceptive of him now, Tooth looked at up.

"What's wrong?"

He blinked.

He felt the wind a hundred times more acutely than he'd ever felt – and he remembered.

At his full potential, the wind surged around them like it was in the beginning of a storm.

And Jack breathed it in.

* * *

_In a distant memory, back in a facility in Alaska, Jack remembered walking into a giant dome used for training GUARDIANs who had control over natural elements. It was steel throughout and the simplest sounds echoed off from one side to the other. The scientists and trainers watched Jack walk to the centre with a nervous heart. When he was standing on the platform it rose twenty feet high and he stared up at them from their outside bunker._

"_You ready, agent?"_

_And Jack tightened his fists and nodded. Then they pressed a button and when a loud buzzer went off, fifty vents opened at once, blowing the frigid North wind from outside all around the dome. _

_Jack shut his eyes and bent in the high winds. He was afraid at first that he'd be blown off and die – but then his skin prickled and his heart started to pump wildly._

_He gasped. A shot of adrenaline ran through him, building his confidence, lowering his fear – until he wanted to stand perfectly straight. He then lifted his hands, and felt the air currents dance through them for the first time. His fingers twitched and he pushed the air away._

_The Beaufort scale then calculated his wind speeds._

_They rustled his hair at more than 12 mph...then he picked the speed to 35 mph: enough to make his shirt billow wildly._

_Then he raised his hands and grabbed what air he could and yanked it, bringing it to 63 mph: enough to knock someone over._

_And in a confident but fluid motion, he bent his knees and clutched the torrent and swirled it around him. __It hit a tornado speed of 106 mph but he was perfectly fine in an air bubble he'd made all his own._

_And he impressed the scientists, himself, and GUARDIANs for weeks after that day._

* * *

Tooth looked at him expectantly. And even though she could barely see through her hair, she smiled a little wider.

Jack looked at his sister one last time and sighed heavily.

Her hair was still long and straight but it was in a side ponytail and she still had her choppy bangs on her right side. But he smiled anyway.

Then he looked at the boy, and his smile grew bigger, finally putting a name to the teen standing next to her.

A name he'd used for his alias all along.

* * *

_Six years ago.._

* * *

"_Your shirt, you big dummy! Haha, you got it all over your shirt!"_

"_Hey!"_

"_Do you two want this or not?!" Jack laughed. He looked at Emma and her best friend. Jamie Bennett was a kid two years older than his sister but they lived two blocks from their house._

_As he walked to the table balancing pancakes in one hand and orange juice in the other, Jamie's little sister, Sophie, suddenly latched onto his leg and pretended to gnaw on it._

"_Hey!"_

"_Soooophie!" Jamie groaned. "We're not playing Beaver Man anymore, you crazy–Go be a fairy!"_

"_Nomnomnomnom!"_

_Jamie laughed and yanked her from Jack's leg and pulled her up in her seat. The two-year-old started clapping. _

_Jamie sighed._

"_Good thing my mom's coming by any minute to pick her up!" he scratched his head like a monkey as Jack put all their breakfast on the table. The sleepover had been awesome as usual but now they had all of Saturday to be stupid. Jack smirked._

"_Why so you can spend more time with my little sister?" he teased. Jamie's face turned immediately beet red and he dropped his hands from his head. He hated when Jack gave him that waggling eyebrows thing he did._

"_N-No! Not like that!" the ten-year-old yelled. Emma was too busy shoving everything in her mouth._

"_Hfphms Mfmm!"_

_Jack poked her in the forehead._

"_Hey, little lady! Chew, swallow, _then_ talk!"_

_She rolled her eyes and waved her fork at him. Jack laughed._

"_Jamie, help! Maybe it's better you're here after all! Since she's trying to _attack me!_ Aren't you gonna protect me?!"_

_"Nope!"_

_And when the little brunette shook his head and crossed his arms smugly, __Emma stopped and gave him a high-five. _

_Jack started eating and laughed._

"_But you _are_ gonna protect _her_ while I'm away, right?"_

_And Jamie paused before he started eating. The two girls on either side of them weren't really paying attention as they were gobbling everything up like Hoover fish._

_Jamie knitted his eyebrows slightly but smiled anyway._

"_Of course, Jack!"_

_Jack swallowed a mouthful of food and smiled warmly._

"_But I mean it," he said gently. "If I didn't come back from one of my 'missions' you would look after Em for me, right?"_

_Jamie laughed. He loved when Jack used the word 'missions' when he was talking about his trips – it made it seem cool and mysterious. He nodded and grinned._

"_I promise, Jack! If something happens, you can count on me! Right, Emma?"_

_And Emma looked up from her plate, round cheeks filled with pancakes._

_"Mfm! (Right!)"_

_And the two boys laughed. But then something went off in Jamie's head and he frowned a little._

"_You're...gonna come back, r-right Jack?"_

_Jack sensed the wave of worry instantly. A brief flash of doubt crossed his eyes before he looked his gaze to his plate to hide it with his bangs. Then he got up and moved around the table to kneel beside Jamie. _

_He looked up worriedly._

"_That's not the point Jamie. I'll still be around, but you'll be a guardian while I'm gone."_

"_How? I'm not strong! O-Or tall! I can't even open a bottle of ketchup without," he pulled his shirt to show, "getting it all over me! So why do you always believe in _me _for something like huge like that?"_

_Jack gave a crooked smile. __And the voice of an old spy buddy whispered in his ear._

_"Porque lo que más importa," he said in what minimal Spanish he was learning then gently hit Jamie's heart, "es lo que esta aquí. Esta es la verdadera fuerza."_

_And Jamie chuckled. "And what does_ that _mean?_"

_Jack smirked warmly. "Because what is more important...is what is in _here_." And he pointed at Jamie's heart again. "This_ _is the _real _strength."_

_When the ten-year-old grinned proudly, Jack returned it._

"_So yeah, kiddo, I believe in you...you just gotta believe in yourself. And that'll make you a guardian too."_

_Sophie then instigated a food fight by accidentally flicking her pancake on Jamie's face and soon the whole kitchen was a war zone._

_Mrs. Bennett was not impressed when she came to pick up Sophie and hour later. But at least Jamie and Emma got leave the house early to meet their other friends._

* * *

All these memories he was having, all this love and light he'd forgotten...it had always been with Jack. It had just been hiding this entire time.

Jack shut his eyes.

He then swept his hand out to Jamie and his sister.

The strong force of the wind carried the snow and frost down the hill, and in a gentle float, it tossed itself down to the two brunettes like a ribbon in the air.

...

Emma was too busy chatting about Christmas presents and Pippa and Caleb's war on 'who-had-the-better-hat-collection' before a strong gust of wind kissed her cheek and tossed her ponytail up. She squealed and cringed down slightly. Jamie's deep voice laughed as he started teasing his best friend.

"What? Can't handle the cold, little missy?"

"Keep cracking jokes, bunny boy, I swear! And one day, you'll wake up without eyebrows!"

"Hey!"

Emma laughed with her eyes still shut and her breath still husky from the air. She embodied every drop of joy her big brother left behind.

But then...

When she froze slightly, the sixteen-year-old eyed her funny.

"What's up?"

Emma stood in the snow for a second, just letting the wind tickle her jaw, her scarf and her hair. She stared ahead at all the houses but...something made warm and nostalgic made her insides uncoil slightly. She sighed softly letting a puff of air escape her lips.

Jamie tried again.

"Ems?"

After another moment, Emma shut her glassy eyes and a smile came over her face.

She shrugged and tightened her toque on her head.

"Mm, nothing," she said honestly and started walking again. But not before she threw her head up and smiled into the gentle snowfall. "I think the family just wanted to say Merry Christmas."

And when she kissed her fist and opened it up to the sky, Jamie smiled. Maybe her parents, her Grams, and Jack were all passing through by for one last visit.

...

_"Bye Em..."_ Jack mumbled to himself. Then he flicked his eyes sideways. "Tooth?"

Tooth stopped watching the two and looked up at him.

"What?"

When he dropped his hand, he looked down at Tooth again.

"You really _are_ a royal pain in my ass, but you did it again."

She threw him a teasing look, not really getting it– but it was lovely nonetheless.

"Did what?"

"You know," he said softly. "You always do."

And she grinned back, cheeks turning pink.

"C-Come on, you know me by now," Tooth smiled warmly. "Actions speak louder than words."

Then Tooth raised her arms slightly and he understood instantly.

"Merry Christmas, Jack," she mumbled.

Moving forward, they hugged each other gently.

He dropped his head on his shoulder, looking sideways into her hair. How they'd gotten from the point of crying to this was beyond him, but he didn't care. All he cared about was the heart pounding so hard in his chest that he dropped into a gentle silence just to feel it.

_Lub-dub...Lub-dub._

There it was. strong and enduring.

And then–

_Lub-dub...Lub-dub._

___Lub-dub...Lub-dub._  
_(Lub-dub...Lub-dub.)_

Through his clothes, he felt hers. Everything slowed down suddenly for Jack, and his eyes grew impossibly wide, his heart starting to race.

But he knew why and he wasn't stupid.

It wasn't the gunshot wound.

It wasn't the stress he was still surfing through.

It wasn't finally seeing his sister at safe (although a comfortable amount still sat for her).

No.

It was Tooth.

His ears turned slightly red and his fingers twitched.

Just holding her the way he was, hearing her voice, feeling her heart beat against him...he knew he had to stop lying.

He had to stop lying, despite what every Spy Manual Book, every TV show, book, and movie would bludgeon him over the head with.

Jack was ready to accept that, with every beat of his reborn heart (Aster was right), what he felt for the Hypunjam princess went beyond just wanting to protect and keep her happy.

He didn't just want to save Tooth and get out of her life.

No, he didn't want Tooth getting out of...getting out of _his _life.

After today, after this sunrise, he couldn't see his life without her in it.

He...He needed _her_ now.

It took everything, this life, his sister, and her, to remind him that he was still him...deep down buried somewhere under all his armor and switched-off emotions.

And when he switched it back on, it overwhelmed him because it was stupid, and _horribly ironic_, and it finally smacked him in the face!

So Jack chuckled weakly. Tooth raised a nervous eyebrow.

"What's so–OH!"

And the next thing she knew, she was being lifted off the ground and Jack spun her around in a circle like a crazy person. Her eyes bugged out, pathetic and strange as it was, but it filled his soul.

"J-Jack!?" she worriedly. Jack immediately stopped and dropped her on her boots.

She quickly tried to push her hair out of her face when she thought she saw beautiful, straight teeth.

Did...Did he smile again?!

Suddenly, Jack grabbed her hands and words left his mouth before he could contain himself.

"Let's go eat."

Tooth blinked twice.

"Wh..._Huh?"_

Jack's tongue stopped for second, trying to retract the outburst. But then her eyes drew him in again and he started to tug her anyway.

"I just...feel like I...I-I haven't eaten anything in years and I'm suddenly starving."

Tooth looked up at him like he was insane.

"You..._You..._wanna go and eat? Right _now?"_

And Jack nodded. Her cheeks started to grow warm.

"Any restaurant you like, or a...or I'm sure there's a diner open somewhere where we can–Or I can take you shopping."

Her eyebrows flew up.

_"What?!"_

"I have more than enough now than I _ever_ did a-and we need a lot of things. _You _need a lot of–"

She punched him in the arm.

"I don't _need _a lot of things! I'm not some pr–Haha everything's closed, you idiot. It's Christmas!"

"Then we'll break in."

"Jack!"

And he grinned softly. Her heart nearly stopped in her chest.

"Okay, okay...How about I could take you to a wafflehouse or buffet or a Dunkin' Donuts and just buy you everything!"

"D...D-Do you _hear_ yourself?" she laughed lightly. "A Dunkin' Donuts?"

"Well then, where do _you_ want to go?" he finally urged, mouth dry and eyes searching hers. "What do you want to do?"

After a moment, Tooth looked up at him, basking in the cold light.

"How 'bout we find _you _food and then we...just," she shrugged innocently, "...sleep?"

Jack blinked.

"W...Seriously? You just want to _sleep?_"

He thought on it as the wind blew her hair into her eyes.

And when she threw him a tired smile, he didn't know what to do.

And for once, he didn't care.

So he pushed her hair out of her face for her instead.

"Sure...Anything you want."

...

_7:54 a.m._

The two then stole a motorcycle and two helmets from the auto shop he used to work in (feeling really bad about it especially since it was freaking Christmas morning) but it had to be done. They couldn't risk anyone in Burgess seeing them and decided to leave and find a place to crash in another city faraway.

They wore their helmets so no one would recognise them as they wheeled it out silently, pushing its dead engine through the empty streets. Neither said anything. Jack needed to soak it all in one last time.

Once they reached the cover of the forest road, he mounted the black Honda Shadow 750 and turned on the V-twin engine. Tooth hopped on after without fear and made sure her bag was snug on her shoulder. When Jack made sure she said enough space to squeeze in, she wrapped her arms around his waist.

Then he shifted out of neutral, and they were off – out of the town's treeline, passed the welcome sign, and back on the main interstate – and away from Burgess; the town surrounded by large, ominous trees that scared everything around it from the outside and hid such a beauty from the inside that the world didn't know.

Just like Jack.

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "Dare" – Krister Linder (thanx to buddy Peter from Feb)

**Big hugs to Rosary-Stefanys-Strigidae'31 for the beautiful Spanish line! Also check out "Laura Palmer" – Bastille (thanx to oldborrowedblue) since I loved the lyrics (: ****And yes! Jack finally admits ****to himself**** that he's infatuated with Tooth. But what does that mean? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!**


	35. Baby It's Cold Outside

**I'll save my talk for the end. If you survive this. And fair warning to the otherwise 'innocent' readers out there. Bon voyage!**

* * *

"**You're taking me over...over and over...I'm falling over...over and over."**

* * *

Jack drove the Shadow two wintry towns over where they managed to find the only service stop open for sad Christmas drivers. He went looking for a phone while Tooth went dry her boot and her wet sock in the washroom. Afterwards she flew into the open convenience store.

Jack, meanwhile phoned ahead to a hotel in the next town and booked the only room they had left – and when they asked if cash would be a problem since their credit card systems were down, he gave a half smile into the receiver and said it wasn't a problem.

Now that he had his original funds back thanks to North and Aster, he wanted to make it up to Tooth from their horrible first night together.

Oh, get your mind out of the gutter.

After he finished, the newly-reborn brunette promptly joined her and the two searched the aisles for what they thought was necessary and could still fit in their bags. They still had all their clothes and Jack had his weapons belt from North.

"Wow, they've got a lot of things," Jack commented. His eyebrows drifted high under his bangs. When he took a step into an aisle, gazing on old brands he now remembered (and appreciated since he'd stayed in Europe and Asia for the last two months), Tooth watched him earnestly.

Jack's face was open and curious, and while he wasn't grinning like crazy after all he'd just went through, it was nice to see not a thread of bitterness or pain on his face. She inwardly cooed when he lifted or poked something, and paused to think about it. She even turned to jelly when she saw the ghost of a smile cross his lips when he saw something else that he suddenly remembered having.

But it wasn't like she had all the time to enjoy it. Jack was still quick and cautious, disappearing around corners quicker than she could keep up and not really saying much.

So she eventually left him alone and went to her own thing – but Jack was always perceptive of where she was, no more than ever.

When they were done, Tooth bought more gum and Jack bought the toothbrushes they so desperately wanted since Night One. Then he threw a roll of duct tape on the checkout counter too. Jack realised he needed to waterproof some areas of his backpack and belt in case of emergencies. The cashier however, smirked.

"You know, rope works better if you're trying to get kinky for Christmas," she commented and Tooth's face immediately blossomed ten shades of red – even Jack's ear burned, but he recovered faster than the princess and rolled his eyes.

"Plus," as she continued. "They're a heck of lot faster to get out of."

"Trust me, we're not doing what you think we're doing."

"Okie dokie."

But her face said otherwise. When she was done, they couldn't get out of there any faster.

So with cheeks burning and comfortable silence, the two decided coffee and donuts really _was_ the best choice.

…

"And you're _sure, _Mr. Spy Man?" Tooth asked as a warm puff of Christmas air left her lips. She was poking him in the head and staring at the Dunkin' Donuts behind the gas station with a slight smile.

She always thought being with Jack meant she'd have to follow his command to the ends of the earth and starve unless absolutely necessary (which was fine with her since, the faster she could get back to her sisters, the better).

But Jack smiled slightly and turned up to appreciate her wide-eyed gaze on the snow around them.

"Yes, Tooth, here take this," He then gave Tooth money to buy ahead. "Buy whatever. I need to refuel the bike's tank." But she opted to wait until he joined her inside.

It _was_ his idea, so she figured he was probably hungry for something.

Jack. As in Jack _Frost,_ ex-GUARDIAN and former operative Agent Jackson (and whatever his last name was), was hungry. But she wouldn't bug him about the details now – it was better he enjoyed them for himself.

Tooth was busy fingering her feathered earring when she heard the door open behind her a couple minutes later.

Turning slightly, she watched Jack come in with his hood on. The wind outside must've gotten harsh as he was refuelling but as he pushed it off, she couldn't help it when her insides warmed instantly.

He had this crooked smile on his face, relaxed and almost relieved, as he looked up at the menu. When he walked passed her, almost forgetting she was there, she shook her head a little.

"You're so weird," she grinned and he threw her a slight grin before her glowing face made him pause slightly.

Jack abruptly turned and tried to look at his reflection in the glass across the shop. Was his hair weird? When he started to fix himself, glancing at the wind he guided away from the gas station moments earlier.

Tooth by then had given up all hope of understanding this new side of Jack and just decided to let him have his fun. So she chose to just touch his arm.

"What d'you want?"

And he looked back down at her. "Want what?"

"Uh...you were hungry, remember?"

Oh right, Jack _was _hungry. How could he forget?

'_Maybe because her eyes are throwing you off?'_ his brain teased him and Jack blinked. Tooth blinked back.

Maybe he was thinking Burgess again? She frowned. How could anyone forget a place like that? It would take some time to...although she didn't want Jack to forget his hometown. But if that's what he wanted, then for today...she would try. As long as it helped him heal better.

She tugged his arm again. "Food...come on, Jack."

They stared at each other for a long moment, neither one saying anything. Then his mouth faltered.

"Yeah...and let's hurry up. It's actually pretty hot in here," Jack said, pulling at his turtleneck. Tooth tugged her turtleneck too and realised that even though Jack's body temperature was much colder than hers, he was right – it was really warm in the shop.

That, or maybe she'd finally grown an affinity for being out in the cold thanks to him.

'_Which makes absolutely no sense since this is my first time actually EXPERIENCING winter weather, but whatever!'_

By the time they'd finished ordering by the disgruntled worker on the holiday shift, they bought half a dozen donuts and two steaming cups of hot chocolate (one plain for Jack, and the other mint-flavoured for Tooth).

It was the most normal thing Tooth had done with Jack since they met and it couldn't even be really considered normal – they were sitting on the icy sidewalk beside the lonely shop, next to their stolen motorcycle and bag full of espionage gear. They even fought over the last pink frosted donut, threatening each other with their guns before Tooth grabbed it and split it two. But she smiled anyway and it was enough to to make her squeeze her knees in bliss and for warmth (especially when Jack took swigs of his drink and having no regard for donut eating etiquette).

After that, things went relatively back to normal.

While Jack finished eating, Tooth tapped her boots anxiously on the concrete.

"So how long do you think it was take for us to get to Edmund and North?" she asked. "I mean, after we've rested...since we both need it. But d'you know what'll happen next?"

Jack's eyebrows knitted together thoughtfully.

"Edmund's gonna need to notify North through an ELF correspondent, I imagine. Then we're gonna have to start on prevention measures for you, and start tracking the remainder of the tooth boxes. We _need _to find his homebase and soon."

He flicked his eyes at hers.

"...How many did he tell you were left?"

Tooth shrugged and looked down into her hot chocolate poignantly.

"Maybe three...Maybe two...I don't..."

As she shook her head and sighed, Jack watched her bleary eyes blink twice and put a hand on her shoulder. Tooth looked up at him, comforted by the affectionate hold.

"Don't worry, Tooth," he said, determined to keep her in line. "We'll get 'em."

And she nodded.

"Yeah..." and she took another long sip of her hot chocolate before she pulled away to look inside it. She loved the taste but she was already running out.

Tooth frowned and turned her head back behind them into the glass. How much was a another cup agai–

"You want more?" Jack asked and she abruptly turned to him. She smiled bashfully and nodded. But he smiled and lifted his own cup.

"I still have a lot. Can't drink too much of this hot stuff or my body will start to react."

"Thanks Jackson," she said warmly before she froze. She remembered he didn't like being called that. "Oh um, I'm sorry, Jack!"

But he even though he faltered a little at the sound of his full name too, Jack's heart didn't go into overdrive when _she_ said it.

"I know you don't like to be called by your full name, at least not by me, and I should respect that, especially si–"

In fact, it sounded nice on her tongue and he didn't mind if she said it again – because when Tooth said his name, a part of him felt like he was old him again, even if it only just for a moment.

"–and I mean who knows what'll happen if someone uses that against you? You wouldn't believe how many times Tooth is used against me. N-Not to to say that _I _will but..well, you never know–"

But maybe he should've told her that since she was still blabbering and apologizing like a motormouth.

"–I'm just sorry, okay? I won't call you J..._that,_ anymore so I'll just shut...uh, I'll just crawl into this cup now and d–"

"Uh, Tooth?"

She stopped when Jack nudged her.

She looked at him, stunned. But he shrugged instead.

"It's okay, Tooth," he said and gave a half smile. "You can call me Jackson if you want."

But she pursed her lips and smiled a little.

"I kind of don't want to now," she teased. "I've only known you as Jack the entire time."

"Fine, fine, call me whatever you want."

She smirked.

"Even kitten?"

"..."

He scowled.

"Nope." And he popped the 'p' to prove a point.

"Hey, that's not fair!"

"Yes, it is," he argued. "Now, here."

Jack then offered his cup again and when she held out hers, he poured half his cup into hers.

When hers was half full again, Tooth thanked him and leaned in slightly with a grin. "Look, we're sharing!"

As she leaned back, Jack shook his head a little and rolled his eyes – he hid his growing smile in his cup while he took another sip.

"See _this_ is how friends act," she commented as she gratefully took long sips from her cup. "Not fighting and giving each other heart attacks."

"Really? I wasn't under the impression."

"So help me, Jack. I swear."

And even though Jack still felt warm by the whole thing, a little part of him crinkled again at the mention of the word 'friends'. Then again, it _was_ his fault that he'd said that.

But it was a heck of alot better than having her be scared of him.

_You don't scare me anymore._

And he gazed on to the sunlit snow-capped pines in the distance with more optimism.

After a few more minutes, they finished relaxing and Jack got up, tossing their garbage out in the trash before he tightened his leather glove on his left hand.

"Now come on, I still have to haul your princess butt to a hotel so you can get your beauty sleep."

But when he started to the bike, he didn't hear a sound behind him. Jack turned.

Tooth was still planted on the curb of the sidewalk. He crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.

"What now?"

And with an indignant expression, Tooth raised her right hand daintily and turned her head sideways, waiting for him to offer his hand to help her up.

"Well, if I'm still such a royal pain in the ass, you might as well walk the full mile and cater to my needs."

"I already do!"

"Uh bup bup!" she said poshly and still waited. "I'm waiting."

And Jack, actually not pissed for once, grinned softly though she couldn't she.

He walked back. He grasped her leather glove in his left one and pulled her up from the ground gracefully. Once she had her footing, Tooth opened her eyes and batted them while moving to the motorcycle.

"Thank you, _Jackson,_" she smiled and he returned it with a small smile.

"Let's get out of here."

And he'd never tell her...but his heart was racing under his jacket, hearing his name on her lips again.

...

_North Philadelphia, 10:22 a.m._

A little over two hours later, Jack drove the bike south into the big town.

After they would rest for the night, they decided they'd drive back up to the Warren and find Aster again. Jack didn't want to call North or the Australian in case they were extremely busy. They knew Christmas was the hardest day of the year for the Russian because that's when all his agents went off sleeper mode. And with Aster manning most of the communications, they'd both be stressed. So they decided to give it a day.

At the sight of the prettily-lit hotel Jack had already reserved a room in, Tooth's mouth fell slightly open. And after Jack parked a street away and they both pulled off their helmets, he caught her gawking expression in the side-view mirror.

She sensed it and looked at him through it, still in shock.

He looked at her like he was trying to hide smile from the quirk of his lips. "What?"

She blinked, still blinded by the way his face looked. It was different but still the same.

'_Tooth, no! Bad girl! He's your friend now! Ugh...'_

"Nothing, I just..." she was almost at a loss for words before she shook her head again.

She immediately stopped her mental tirade and hugged the helmet. Feeling more elated from the food, the Christmas winter wonderland around them, and his open expression, she threw a teasing smile.

"I assumed you liked bunking with hobos so I thought we'd end up at another motel."

"Well, if it's starting to grow on you, I can always..."

He then zipped up his leather jacket a little higher and started to lean over the motor–

"Oh hell no!" and Jack almost fell over from the speed she dismounted off the bike behind him. Jack turned over his shoulder to smile as she tightened his backpack on her shoulders and readjusted her bag.

Jack's smile, though still tentative and tiny was on his face. He was trying to be courteous to Tooth now, more than he ever felt, and even though he wanted to jump over the moon, he wasn't sure what a full on grin or laugh would do to her – heck, he wasn't sure what it would do himself.

Jack had been the poster boy for 'Congealed, Brooding, Mystery Man of the Year', he might as have been Batman himself. So he worried that if he started flipping out now, he could end up like the Joker. Absolutely insane.

But maybe not as insane as Toothiana was being, thinking he actually _was _considering a motel again. But then...that's what he was starting to like about her more and more. And it wasn't letting him go.

"I wasn't going to, princess!" Jack said and shook his head.

When she looked up, Tooth walked around him and patted him on the arm.

"Good," she laughed. "Now let's go. And _hey!_ No more, princess! Remember?"

After they got their room and Jack paid for the one night stay, he and Tooth carried what little they had and went up to their floor by the elevator. They missed the receptionist's cooing at how cute they were, arguing and smiling like no tomorrow – then again, Christmas brought out the good in everyone.

When they got to their room door, Jack used the card key to open it and the lights turned on automatically.

They both stepped in, feeling their exhaustion wash over them in waves suddenly and stress minimize at the comfort level in the room. The room reminded them of the rest workshop back in North's warehouse where all the red and golds and dark browns gave off a romanticised, rustic feel, and they appreciated the softness of every sheet and pillow.

It was also warm.

...But there was only one bed.

"Oh," Tooth commented. Hadn't they asked for a two bed room? She bit her lip and flit her pink eyes up at Jack. He had the same look of bemusement on his face and was eyeing the room in thought.

Tooth didn't know what to do.

"They said this was the only room available in the whole hotel right?" she voiced. "Because other families have flown in for the holidays?"

When Jack nodded, she immediately turned to go back out into the hallway.

"I'll go down and ask them to bring up a spare for me–"

He reached back blindly and caught her hand. How he was able to do that both unnerved and astounded the two of them – it was like he knew exactly where she was without seeing her.

But he didn't want to dwell on it. Her warm hand made him tug her back.

"Tooth, it's fine," Jack gestured and moved further into the room. Crossing the threshold, he tossed his backpack on the table beside the TV. "You can take the bed, I'll take the armchair."

As he walked twelve steps toward it, zipping down his light brown leather jacket, Tooth shook her head adamantly.

She didn't want Jack to sacrifice anything for her again. And she knew she'd feel a whole lot better if he took the bed because she really thought he deserved it after all the nights he didn't sleep.

"No, _I'll_ take the armchair!" she argued and when he turned at her sudden ferocity, she smiled slightly. "Besides I'm smaller than you. I can actually _fit_ in that."

"Tooth, _seriously–_"

"Jack, I _want_ you to be comfortable."

"What makes you think I'm not?"

"Well, you _won't_ be, trying to fold those legs of yours in that seat."

When he actually chuckled, it sent a happy ring through Tooth's ears. She smiled at his back although he didn't see it as he tossed his jacket and blue hoodie onto the seat. Next he straightened out his black turtleneck he'd been wearing underneath and moved back to his bag.

"Trust me," he sighed. "When I was a regular spy, sometimes the room only had one bed to share with me and four other agents. So I've slept on worse."

When he paused to think on what he just said, Tooth stared at his wistful expression for a long time.

"You really _do_ remember."

After a moment, Jack looked across the room at her and nodded.

"Yeah, I..." he mumbled and his face softened. "I guess I do. But that doesn't mean I want the bed, so _you_ take it."

Eventually a smile grew on her face.

"Okay fine, I won't fight you because it's Christmas."

"_Too late for that,_" he muttered and started pulling off his only leather glove. When he grimaced at the scar as he usually did and the pool of cold splashed briefly in his stomach, he looked at Tooth for some kind of comfort.

When he did, the sorrow almost melted away just as quickly as it came. Like the ray of light she was, Toothiana smiled humbly at the queen-sized bed and dropped face-first onto its end and huffed.

"Thank you, Jack!" she said gratefully through a mouth full of bed comforter. "I can't wait to collapse!"

She imagined that if her muscles had mouths they'd all be whining right now. The thought made her giggle under her breath for a second and Jack felt his adoring smile for her stretch wider across his lips. When her dark tufts of hair pulled up, he abruptly turned and started pulling out a change of clothes from his backpack.

"Why don't you take a nap?" he suggested as he started going to the bathroom.

"What are you gonna do, then?" she asked as she took off all her winter wear then looked for a change of clothes too.

A second later, Jack came out in a blue t-shirt and his black track pants. "I'm gonna go down and hit the gym."

"W-What?" Tooth blinked and he started shaking his head to explain why.

"I have all this energy right now."

"From eating?"

He nodded and crossed his arms. "From _everything._"

She pursed her lips thoughtfully before he started walking around her less threatening than he'd ever seemed, but exuding all this sudden adrenaline she couldn't explain. It made no sense to him either, but Jack couldn't stop replaying nights as a spy or GUARDIAN in his head now, and he was itching to fight the same way again.

"I remember everything I did now, and there was so much I did that I need to get it out all out again," he looked down at his hands and clenched them gently. "Besides..."

Then he looked at her.

"I haven't done any physical training since I saved you. Or did you forget?"

And when a mischievous look passed on his face, Tooth grinned softly.

"Fine, fine," Tooth agreed and shooed him away with her hand. "Go have your freedom. You are relieved of my presence."

"How gracious of you," he said but his eyes rolled playfully. Then he tossed her the second card key and headed for the door.

"See you later, Tooth," he said shooting a smile over his shoulder and when she waved back wholeheartedly, his heart beat faster.

But then he left it at that, perfecting the cool and collected walk he always had.

...

_Hotel, 1:13 p.m._

Jack worked out for three hours, never feeling more powerful in his life. He remembered every martial art he was taught and every fight he had, and being alone on the mats in the enormous hotel fitness room gave him enough space to reawaken it all.

It was actually closed for the holiday but with a little charm and a promise to clean up after (GUARDIANs were taught to clean their stations after physical exertion to not leave prints so he sort of _had _to), the short-shift workers let him use it for reasons beyond them.

In his solitude, Jack moved around powerful and graceful, jumping and transitioning through movements of more than seven, different martial arts he could remember. He hadn't mastered them _all_, but just remembering and twisting his body fluidly through the stages helped until his muscle memory returned. As he did, the Center gene sent a voltage through his bones, elating his DNA to the core. He even laughed a little when he perfected a double layout on the floor and landed perfectly on his feet.

When he was done and heading out of the room, he had full command over his body. He felt all his old strength hum through him like a powerful anchor, Jack smirked. He was ready now if anything idiot, cop, criminal, or Nightmare came at him. They'd never see it coming – neither would Toothiana.

"You're all done, sir?" a man asked him with a slight smile and Jack for once, smiled back ear-to-ear.

"Yeah, I am. Thanks again for granting me access. I know it was pretty unusual."

The hotel worker chuckled.

"A little. But hey, it's Christmas," he smiled again. "If this is your own personal gift to yourself, then who am I to say no, right?"

And Jack's grin softened. Then he said his thank yous and goodbyes one last time, headed to the elevators to touch the button to his floor–

"Shit!"

He froze and spun wide-eyed at the hotel worker already walking away.

Christmas gift.

A Christmas gift!

It was fucking Christmas and–

_Ding!_

Jack spun back around as the elevator opened, shining pretty gold and ready to take him up to his room.

Up to Tooth.

And as he stepped in and let it close, Jack blew a nervous breath over his lips.

...

When he got back, Jack opened the hotel room door and stepped in with practised ease. His feet, his breath, and his body didn't make a sound as he moved silently into the room. After all the training downstairs, Jack felt back on his game and remembered little things that made his stealth work even better.

But he did have to admit, hearing Tooth breathe in and out deeply, did make him feel a little more exhausted than he wanted to admit.

As he crossed the threshold and poked his head around the corner to check on her, he stopped.

Tooth was wrapped deep inside the blankets with a completely peaceful, makeup-free, look on her face. Her hair was in a loose ponytail from Bao's feathered hairtie and she curled into herself for warm.

And he couldn't help but smile as he turned back around to get out of his clothes. When he did though, he noticed that all their previous clothes they'd worn were folded on the table and looked fresh again. He looked back at Tooth quickly.

She must've gone down to the laundry room while he was training – and something about that made his heart race a little again.

Him buying her food, her just randomly doing laundry. Those were the kind of things couples did. But there was _nothing_ domestic about the way Jack lived or the way Princess Toothiana grew up. They couldn't pull that off...especially not for each other.

Jack felt his pale skin heat up on his face and he rubbed a hand through his hair stressfully.

"_She's a friend, Overland,"_ he muttered and moved into the washroom. _"Get over it."_

Jack was almost stunned when he realised how good it was to remember his last name. But as he shut the bathroom door and took off his t-shirt again, he frowned a little.

His skin was dry (he gotten the sweat control still intact) and his lean muscles were aching but still defined...but the bandage over his bullet wound, after all the fighting, the running, and emotional breakdown, was a little red.

He huffed and stared at it for a long time.

If they _could_ pull it off, if they _did_, this would _not_ be their idea of how they'd want to spend their Christmas – hairs rising on the backs of their necks every time a sound or shadow appeared. Jack's idea of Christmas would being home with Emma right now baking something horrible, then spending the rest of the day with their friends in the snow and family in the evening for movies.

Tooth's...well, he didn't know.

And it made him think of her again.

...

_1:45 p.m._

Tooth woke up to find Jack coming around the corner. As she rubbed her eyes and pulled up from the bed, he turned his head.

"How was it?" she asked with a warm smile.

"I'm back on top," Jack said simply, but the ghost of a smile crossed his lips. "So any Nightmare that comes at me is roadkill."

And Tooth's smile grew. She threw him a thumbs up before she started to sit up from the bed.

"By the way, Tooth...Thanks."

She paused and looked at him again.

"For what?"

Jack leaned against the table and looked at her. Meanwhile Tooth, who felt self-conscious like _anyone_ who'd just woken up, groggy and not looking their best, played with her fingers and waited.

Jack wasn't sweating, but Tooth could tell by the way his stance that he was more confident in his skin. His eyes were more focused and when he crossed his arms, she tried not to get sucked in by the toned muscle peeking out from under his dark t-shirt. She tilted her head as Jack glanced sideways for his words.

Then he looked at her.

"For helping me. For _everything_," he said steadily."I never said it yet...but you're the reason why I stayed with Aster, why we found the company on that field, getting me out of the Judgement Room...all the way up until Burgess...And you _know, _I'm gonna making it up to you."

When she pushed her hair behind her ear and rubbed an eye. She grinned softly.

"Well, that's a nice way to wake someone up."

The ghost of a smile on his face finally appeared.

"Well, it was a Christmas gift definitely worth waiting for."

Thinking about the lake again, Toothiana moved out of bed. He realised that she was still in her tight, spy pants but in a different sweater. Her skirt was somewhere else too.

"You're welcome, Jack," she said, happily relieved. "And I'm glad that I didn't have to use these things to help you," she said and nervously pulled at the gun holsters she hid under the pillow beside her for protection.

Jack blinked.

As he did though, she chuckled weakly.

"I don't like to carry them around. Like I said, weapons don't define who we are or who we will be."

And Jack nodded firmly as she pulled one Taurus rifle out of its holder and looked at it.

"But I still don't feel confident handling it. I'm not fast enough."

Then out of the blue, Jack gave a half smile again.

"Remember when I asked if you were ambidextrous?"

She eyed him dangerously.

"Yes. I'm still offended by that."

Jack chuckled.

"When you're right handed, your right hand's physically stronger than your left. But for you, they're equally fine, right?"

Tooth blinked, perplexed by the statement.

"H-How'd you know that?"

Jack shrugged.

"Back in Ho Chi, I noticed you kept switching the pen back and forth in your hands as you practised your false signatures," he told her and she blinked – she always forgot that wasn't normal for everyone. "And when you tried to beat me with two sticks?"

"I _did_ beat you with two sticks!"

"_One_ stick."

"Two! I was holding _both_ so it counts."

"Okay, _whatever," _he squeezed the bridge of his nose. "But the point _is..._Why _else_ would North give you a pair of rifles?"

She shrugged. "For double protection?"

"And _two_ holsters?"

"In case the other goes missing?"

He raised an eyebrow.

"Okay," she huffed. "Maybe it was a bit uncanny how he knew."

And Jack smiled. He then made a gesture for her to get up.

Tooth blinked but started moving anyway.

"Why?" she groaned and tossed the warm bed sheet aside. She had a feeling she knew what was coming. "It's Christmas!"

By the time she was up and standing, Jack had already latched on his weapons belt and was pulling out his rifle from its holster.

"Remember to keep the safety on," he said with a small grin.

...

_1:47 p.m._

So for the next few minutes Jack showed her how to hold her stance again with the gun and where her fingers were at all times. Then when she got the basics down, he showed her seven motions to help her remember how to move into line for a target...with him covering her other spots – it was a tag-team maneuver that shooters often practiced in case they were going to surrounded by targets and needed to keep moving around each other to take them out. They were lucky that most of the guests on their floor and below them were all out so they didn't have to worry about making noise or (god forbid) a bullet firing out and scaring anyone – the latter didn't happen.

After the last stance, they stopped for a breather.

"You got it?" Jack said as he took a step back to give Tooth space.

"I think so...hang on," and she started playing with her fingers and looking up at the ceiling trying to remember the motions. A second later, she started swaying her arms and body in a fluid motion, dancing left to right, and spinning back to front with her arms bent up in a graceful twist.

Jack raised an eyebrow.

"Uh...what're you doing?"

Tooth immediately froze. When she realised he was still watching, she turned at him with a flustered look.

"Sorry! It's just it's like a dance. Like you know, right, left, right–" And when she started to move again, she stopped before she got all the way. Her cheeks turned pink.

"It sorta reminds me of the dances we do on Punjam Hy Loo and the ones they do in India," and when she shrugged, he smiled slightly.

"No, it's good," he encouraged and taking a step forward, she grinned shyly.

"Y-Yeah?"

He nodded. "Anything that'll help you remember how to move each arm and knee correctly is great. And it is sort of like a dance...just faster, tighter, and more rough."

The last part of his sentence made her feel slightly awkward and when she laughed to herself Jack looked at her.

"Okay, ready?"

She nodded disconcertedly. "A-As I'll ever be."

"Alright," he said and he came up to stand behind Tooth. The two then re-holstered their guns, leaving their hands free.

"Ready..." Jack's fingers twitched.

"...Steady.." Toothiana exhaled.

"Go! _One!" _Then they jumped into action, starting their 'dance' as they both secretly liked to call it.

Tooth smoothly pulled out her left gun and aimed it forward with a tight grip and a slight foot forward for support – Jack was already kneeling on one knee on her right, aiming his gun past her leg to aim at invisible targets from beneath.

"_Two!"_ he grunted and Tooth quickly slid into a one-knee position on the ground aiming to the right – Jack switched knees fluidly and was aiming at targets on the left.

"_Three!" _Tooth immediately switched knees and aimed on the left like Jack had done – he was already leaning above her, and facing forward again with his rifle with cold accuracy. He had to make sure his gun was nowhere near her ear to avoid a deafening reverb from a shoot he might make. But Tooth was ready and trusted him.

"_Four!"_

Next came the harder stance. Tooth pulled up from her knee stance and spun until she was facing diagonally to the right behind her. As she threw her hand up and down like a pendulum, she held her gun aimed it ahead. Jack stood up too, turning slightly, and aimed his gun diagonally to the right so they were side by side facing opposite directions.

"Okay good, now _Five."_

Like a whip, Tooth spun to face forward again, and knelt down on one knee again. When she was aiming ahead of her in a dead heat, Jack had also dropped into a one-knee position and spun to cover her back.

"_Six."_

As Tooth grabbed her second gun, she pulled up and completely around to face behind her. She then aimed both guns forward – directly under Jack's arms since he'd spun up to stand to shoot his gun and an invisible one over shoulders. They were so close though that when she inhaled, Jack almost felt her front touch him. It was so nerve-wracking they looked at each other for a brief moment before Jack blinked.

"And seven."

Finally in one, last quick motion, Tooth spun back around to face her front and raised both guns out sideways as she looked side to side. Jack was right up against her, using her body as a form of leverage as he aimed diagonally over her shoulder to the left.

When they were done and they froze, Tooth panted heavily.

Jack's chest against her back probably wasn't the best thing to keep her focused at the moment. But at least they'd did what they wanted to do.

She sighed gratefully and dropped both her arms. They ached slightly.

Jack sighed and pulled away slightly.

"Good job," the brunette said and he ran a hand through his hair. "I still don't know how you picked that up so quickly. But I think I can rest easier knowing you can drop properly in a gunfight."

Tooth shrugged with a smirk and turned to face him – almost regretting it when she realised how close they were to each other.

"Y-Yeah I guess," she mumbled and swung her arms back and forth with the guns in each hand. "But I think I need to go to the gym and work on my arms after this is all over. They feel like jelly."

And Jack smiled as he and her started to re-holster their weapons. "Yeah, it's like that at first but you'll get used to it."

"Yeah, because I _so _wanted to get used to this," she said sarcastically.

"_You're_ the one who said–"

"I was _joking_. Jeez man!"

And she smiled throwing her hands out in front of her dramatically before she laughed again.

Hell and high water, she was ready for whatever would come now.

"Thanks, Jack–"

Suddenly, he caught her hand.

Tooth froze instantly, feeling that electric jolt return when their skin made contact. She nearly fell over and looked at him expectantly. But not even taking a second to think about what he was doing, Jack looked at her and lifted her knuckle to his lips. He planted a sweet and short kiss on her skin, throwing her off completely and leaving her light-headed.

"You're welcome, _princess_," he said, emphasizing the title she asked him specifically not to mention.

Then he waited.

"That okay?" he smiled.

But she didn't hit him or smile.

Instead, Tooth squeaked.

Jack rolled his eyes.

He then grinned and let go of her hand gently. As he turned around, Tooth's heart fluttered under her ribcage and a chorus of angels went off in her head. But the brunette missed it (along with her blush) as he went to the window and pulled the curtain away.

The sun was already starting to lower from its peak and the snow had stopped falling, everything was serene for miles and while Jack knew he should always prepare for the fact that a Nightmare could show up at any point, he didn't want to continue the day in constant fear or anxiety. So he dropped the curtain back and turned back to the Tooth.

"You wanna get outta here?" he asked. And Tooth dropped her hands from where she was fixing her hair.

She squinted at him, her blush still on her face...until she threw him a tiny, encouraging smile.

"What'd you have in mind?"

And without saying a word, Jack went to his bag and pulled out something warm, soft, and so her.

Tooth immediately knew what it was and would've smacked him upside the head, were it not for the grin on his face. "The woman in Room 501 won't miss this for a couple hours."

And Toothiana, despite her good heart, shook her head slightly and grinned back.

…

_Open-bar Christmas party, 2:38 p.m._

The sun was set to go down by 3:30 so the party started early and the lights were glowing, when Jack finally stopped and killed the Shadow's engine. He thanked his eavesdropping skills for picking up on the two guys who'd mentioned this place as he kicked the bike stand and steadied himself on one boot."

Fourteen seconds later, Jack opened the front door to the bar and let Tooth go in first. When the door closed behind him and the smell of worn wood and alcohol wafted through her nose, Toothiana spun on him.

"I thought I told you I'd _never_ come into a bar with you again!" she hissed dangerously.

"Aw, live a little Tooth," he smiled. "It's Christmas."

And when a bunch of random locals wished him Merry Christmas, Jack smiled and pushed her to the washroom doors. "Now just go _change_ already. We're gonna have a little fun."

Tooth stuck her tongue out at him but smiled gratefully as she moved to the door. If this was his way of making it up to her for everything they went through, of trying to relive even just a bit of the happiness he'd lost then she'd do it for him, even if it only lasted for so long.

By the time Jack zipped down his brown leather jacket and was mindlessly chatting with a guy in the only blue dress shirt and jeans he had left, Tooth came out in her cute, glittering sweater dress. She used the hairtie to tie a portion of her hair back and let the rest down. Good thing she snagged those gold earrings from the girl in Room 232. She felt bad, but they were gorgeous and she'd return them later.

When Jack turned, it was like seeing her made his Center gene jolt across his skin and his heart pound. It was like being on the lake all over again with the sun lighting her up – or no, it was just her, always lighting up everything around her like she did with her powerful, anomalistic eyes. She then handed the doorman her trenchcoat and for the next two hours before the bar closed early, the two of them just enjoyed themselves – well, for Tooth it was more a trial and error thing more than anything.

Jack ordered himself a scotch, something he hadn't had in years and while Tooth (and his brain) scolded him not to have too much, he was grateful for the one glass he got himself. Tooth got herself a daiquiri and enjoyed it, trying to get used to the bar atmosphere. When they were in Ho Chi Minh, she couldn't do any of that because well...they were running for their lives – and all the people who went into that place were criminals.

But the place Jack took her to was homey and comfortable. It was no gala and that's what Tooth adored about it – it wasn't stuffy or fancy. Just simple and adorably real, strung up with red, green, and white lights and everyone in ugly Christmas sweaters. The locals were obviously very nice and the many who stepped out of their homes for a Christmas drink were friendly and loud. Some of them even made her and Jack laugh as they went about their normal business. After a bit, they toasted each other to a relatively safe destination and hoped both their lives wouldn't suck after this ordeal.

"Does that even taste good?" Tooth asked as they finished their toast and he raised both eyebrows with a small smile.

He handed it to her and she took a sip – instantly regretting it. Tooth gagged and shoved it back to him. He chuckled and she threw him a dirty look before she went back to hers.

"What? Don't like it?"

"Noo, thank you," she laughed. "I'll stick to my girly drinks If you don't mind!"

Then suddenly, one of the bar regulars put on a radio overhead and it started to play random love songs from some set station in Iowa.

As 'Come What May' started playing, a man far off in the bar started yelling.

"Alright guys, grab a lady!"

And Tooth laughed as it was entirely the opposite – women were grabbing men and dragging their eggnog coma-induced asses onto the hardwood and dancing in dangerous circles.

Then one older man, with a sweet, humble expression, grabbed Tooth's hand and pulled her from the bar stool. For a moment, Jack panicked (his fingers twitching to the back of his belt) and Tooth had her 'kick-you-in-the-balls' instinct flipping on – but the older man laughed like a grandfather and was just genuinely happy.

Tooth couldn't help but giggle when she realised his rosy cheeks and red nose reminded her of Santa Claus – reminded her of North a little. She grinned and soon the two of them were just holding hands at a full arms length and dancing like two kids at a birthday party. She never laughed so much in the last couple days and when he asked if his footing was okay, she nodded and said he was absolutely great.

Jack watched with a smile on his face, resting his cheek against his knuckle. Tooth and the man eventually got swallowed up by a few more people until the song changed. Then when a quick, Christmas tune started to play, the princess poked her head through to look at him.

Jack blinked and lowered his fist.

'**What?**' he mouthed. But she grinned and beckoned him over with a finger. Jack shook his head and she watched a look of worry pass through his blue eyes. She blinked until she read his expression – he wasn't looking at her nervously, he was looking at the people around her.

Jack didn't want to say it, but he was still afraid that all these people around him, too close to him, would make him react, thinking of Hue's bar and all the times he'd grabbed Tooth the wrong way against his control.

And he didn't want that.

She instantly understood and her head disappeared back into the sea of people. Thankful, Jack smiled again but it was still sad.

A second later though, the older man and the people around her, parted a little to let her through. Jack blinked again, his smile slipping off his face in confusion.

As she thanked the older man for the fun dance and wished him a Merry Christmas, he bowed like a goofball and stretched his arms out to where Jack was sitting, having already seen the guy she came in with. He grinned.

"Your prince awaits," he teased and Tooth blushed before she shook her head at him with a grin.

"Ehh..._don't say that..."_ she mumbled to herself. He should never be allowed to say that again. And as she got to the bar again, she smiled up at Jack.

As she did, the song playing made her heart soar from old sophomore memories.

_Are you going to age with grace?_

_Are you going to leave a path to trace?_

His forehead creased and he shook his head.

"I..."

"Come on!" she said touching his arm and pulling him forward. "One for me, please?"

"No, Kat," he said shaking his head again and tried his best not to be pulled off the bar stool – even though a large part of him wanted to.

"Adrian!"

But Jack looked at the group of people packed so tightly on the floor. It wasn't like Rome – when the two of them had so much space to dance around in. Thinking about all those people he'd hurt again was starting to come back – but Tooth wanted none of that.

"Adrian, you owe me," she insisted, wanting to forget about his pain for just a moment and have fun for him. "And you'll be with me, you trust me right?"

"I don't know, I...I don't want to," he murmured just as a barmaid walked past and looked at the two of them. She looked like she really didn't want to be there and she felt like taking it out on the princess.

"Leave him alone, hon," the brunette frowned and Tooth turned around to shoot her a miffed expression. This wasn't her conversation to butt into – she didn't even know Jack and why he was _actually _not wanting to dance. But the barmaid interpreted it the way she thought.

"You don't look like the kind of girl who goes out, especially on Christmas, and with a guy like him," she sneered and Tooth paused her grip on Jack's arm. Even Jack heard that and his eyebrows flew up again.

"So stop throwing yourself on him," the barmaid said and then walked away. "What would your mom think?"

And Tooth's mouth slackened. The second Jack felt her fingers slide from his jacket and he turned to look at her, he worried.

Her eyes grew glassy and she glared at the back of the barmaid's head.

"How would I know?" Tooth seethed to herself. "I never _had _one."

Jack's eyes grew wide.

'_Ooh, if I could shoot daggers with my eyes, I would!'_ she thought bitterly. _'Cranky , little–'_

"Hey, don't listen to her," Jack said suddenly. Tooth huffed and turned back around.

Then she realised, he was sliding his body slide off the stool and grabbed her hand.

"Okay," he sighed. "_Now _I'll do it for you."

And once their feet were firmly planted on the floor, Tooth smiled gratefully.

"_Thanks hero,"_ she whispered and Jack smiled. Then before she could blink, he produced a small poinsettia out of nowhere.

Toothiana's wide eyes grew wider and she looked around the bar suspiciously before her jaw dropped.

"W-Where did you get this?" she cooed and blushed a pretty pink.

Jack shrugged as she took it delicately and twirled it in her fingers. She thought of the Leprechaun's Den instantly and remembered when Jack gave her the four-leaf clover instantly. And from the look on his face, so did he.

"Don't worry, I didn't take it from someone's spice garden," he smirked.

And as her blush darkened and she placed the deep-red flower behind her ear, she grinned.

"Well good," she said. "Because I love it."

"Merry Christmas, Tooth."

Once it was the flower was firmly placed and smiling back at Jack, he placed his hand on her waist and held her hand again. She then put her hand on his shoulder and smiled as she started to move like they did in Italy.

For two songs, that's what they did; with Tooth humming to songs she knew and Jack thinking about Rome all over again. He was so close to kissing her then...But then another kiss kept plaguing the back of his mind.

But why? Jack couldn't get over it as he held Tooth in a small circle. Was it _his _kiss with someone? He hadn't kissed anyone in months though. So who–

"Hey."

Jack and Tooth looked at the old man who she'd dance with and he was grinning slightly with his new partner. He was staring at Jack and nudging his head at Tooth.

"Kiss her already," he said, then smiled and danced away with his partner. Jack and Tooth stood there frozen for a millisecond.

The brunette's heart raced and he looked like he couldn't comprehend what he was thinking. Tooth blinked with her mouth open, trying to find words and shaking her head a little.

"Uh, w...bu...y..." she babbled before Jack blinked and looked at where the old man had once been. He was gonna crack a joke with the almost-North lookalike – before the two realised what he was doing.

He was dangling a piece of mistletoe from out of _no_where over their heads.

And before the blood could finish rushing to both their cheeks, he drifted away and carried it with him.

But Jack turned back to Tooth, and they both had this look on each other's face – unreadable, but secretly urgent.

And before they could think it fully over, not wanting to lose an opportunity...

Jack leaned down.

Tooth rushed up.

And in the most horrible angle possible–

"OW!"  
_"What the–"_

–they banged foreheads and noses.

Tooth thought Jack hit her with something and Jack thought she was being her prissy self. Not a second later, Tooth crushed Jack's boot with her heel.

"_Not funny!"_ he hissed in pain.

On impulse, he squeezed her hand tightly with a grip that could crush ice and she yelped in pain. Tooth immediately kicked him in the shin again and he let go instantly.

"Are you _insane!?" _she said hotly then shoved him back a little and stormed out of the bar. She grabbed her coat on the hook and Jack looked at her like she was crazy before he stalked after her with a murderous look.

Once they were both out on the porch again, Tooth whirled on him, salt pellets crushing under her boots. She was rubbing her forehead under her bangs and shaking her head.

"What the _hell _did you do back there?!"

"Me?!" Jack countered, gently rubbing his nose. "You hit me as I w–"

"No! _You _hit _me!_" she argued. "After your whole 'thank you' is that what you do to people who save your life?!"

"You crushed my foot!"

"You squeezed my hand!"

"Because you're a damn psycho. Why'd you _do _that?!"

"Psycho?! _I'm _psycho!?" and she gritted her teeth.

"_Yes,"_ he answered. "Friends don't do what we just did to each other. I was–"

"What we just _did?_" she cried. She blinked, not really getting it. "Don't you mean what we _always_ do?!"

And Jack clenched his fist, stumped by how they were fighting again.

"You know, _neither_ of us is winning points in the polite department!"

"Because _you're_ so freakin' complicated!"

"No, because _you're_ so damn hot headed!"

"And you're bossy!"

"And you drive me crazy!"

"Well, then..." her heart was racing and her body was shivering. "S...suck it up and be the friend who takes my shit!"

Jack ran a hand through his hair.

"I...argh, I can't!"

"I knew it!"

"_Oh yeah?!_ Well, neither can _you_!"

Tooth crossed her arms.

"Oh, I already _knew_ I couldn't, buddy!"

And Jack leaned down at her.

"I'm _not_ your buddy," he threatened.

"I'd rather you _weren't."_

"So, I guess we're not friends anymore."

"Yeah, I guess we're not!" she spat.

"Fine!"

"_Fine!_"

And they were both an inch from each other's face, grinding teeth, glaring daggers, and blowing hot air on each other.

Then a second later, Tooth pulled away...with a small grin on her face.

Jack copied instantly as she spun around and threw her hands into hair.

"Look at us!" she cried and laughed. "We're crazy! I swear, we have bigger problems to deal with, and we can't even do this right! We can't do _anything_ right!"

And Jack shoved his hands into his pockets with a slight smirk.

"Depends on how you look at it, I guess."

And she laughed back and turned back to him. She wondered what BT would say about her relationship with Jack – she'd probably say she was unhealthy and needed medical attention. Jack thought the exact same thing about Emma.

"Oh, and this is normal for you?"

He shook his head.

"With _you,_ I think this is as close as we're ever gonna get."

And she gasped with a smile on her face as she laughed again.

"Jack, you're _horrible!_"

He threw his hands up and moved back down to where their motorcycle was parked.

"Well, good thing you don't have to deal with me being a friend anymore then, right?"

And she rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, thank God for _that_."

Jack reached the bottom of the steps and got on their bike, he looked at the darkened sky littering itself with stars. Then he nudged his head back at her.

"Ready to go?"

"Oh, yeah."

Tooth mounted the bike behind him and wrapped one arm around his waist, she placed the other on his shoulder incredulously.

"But if we're not friends anymore..." she asked slowly. "...then what _are_ we?"

And as Jack handed her the helmet, he paused. Tooth was surprised when his eyebrows furrowed slightly as if he really had to think about it. He stared at her through the side-view mirror and looked at the red flower still snug behind her ear.

"Not sure," he finally spoke, feeling the warm air leave his lips in a puff.

Tooth bonked him on the head softly with the helmet.

"It's okay, I guess we'll figure it out eventually."

And Jack chuckled before he fell back into a comfortable silence with Tooth and hit the engine. Then they were off again.

...

_Hotel, 4:24 p.m_

When they got back, the sun had already gone down and it was dark, saying goodnight to Western hemisphere of the world. Tooth sighed and took off her scarf. Her cheeks were still red from being out in the cold and from having a surprisingly nice time with Mr. I-Don't-Understand-Fun.

He even suggested they go down later and grab something to eat since the hotel cafeteria would be closed for the day – which was fine with her, yet sorta scary, considering it now seemed like Jack wanted to eat all the time.

But it made her crush on him more – until she, you know, had to bury that secret in a case filled with cement. And maybe even beat the top a little so it was unrecognizable to anyone who found it.

She laughed under her breath.

"Thanks again, Jack," she said politely and started to take off her coat. Her sweater and new earrings were safely returned to their respective owners. "You're surprisingly good company."

And he threw her a teasing smile before he rubbed his jaw.

"Was there any ever doubt?"

"There was _only_ doubt."

And he shook his head before he shirked off his brown leather jacket and tossed it on the chair again and unlatched his weapons belt.

Suddenly, he sighed as he passed the floor length mirror sitting beside their TV.

"...I need to shave."

Tooth blinked.

"You need to shave? Since _when?"_

As she watched as he immediately pulled out a razor from one of the tiny, concealed holsters in his belt to show the new one he'd just bought. When he heard the sass in her tone, Jack spun to look at her.

"Hey, I shave!"

"You can't shave."

"I _do._"

"Your face is literally smooth as a baby's butt," and she blinked twice unconvinced.

He rolled his eyes. "Oh, _that's_ charming. But seriously, look."

Jack then leaned into her personal space again and Tooth blushed. She was about to tell him to get out of her face when she stopped and blinked.

Jack's jaw _had_ grown darker since they left the bar but she thought it was just the shadows – but now that she was really looking, she realised his face _was _rugged, just about ⅛ the inch like the Hypunjam military soldiers.

With even thinking, she raised a hand and rubbed her hand along Jack's jaw. He tried to control his shiver under her touch but Tooth winced slightly at the sharpness.

"H-How come I've _never_ seen you shave, or _need _to...until now?" she asked him as he pulled away.

"It's the center gene. It slowed down my hair growth," he explained. "I mean, I always used to shave less than other guys. It's hereditary, my dad's face facial hair always grew pretty slow too. But once I became...you know, _Jack Frost_, it almost stopped completely."

Jack then rubbed his chin and scowled a little. "...It's been months since I've had to actually."

Tooth pursed her lips at him thoughtfully so Jack went to move around her. _He_ thought it was because she was still wondering about his unbelievable story – _she _was actually thinking about him with a full on five o'clock shadow and wondering if he'd still look good.

Her answer: Absolutely.

"I don't know, Tooth," he sighed to answer her unspoken question. "But I'm starting to think that I can make up a lot of excuses using the 'It's the gene' gimmick."

"No, I actually believe that."

"Yeah?"

She nodded and grabbed her bangs. "Yeah, 'cause see? My blonde...Uh, wait."

When she realised it was all brown thanks to the dye, she pouted.

Jack caught it and frowned for her but Tooth immediately tried to cover it up and chuckled a little.

"Well, when my hair _wasn't_ dyed...My blonde streak grew the slowest. It grew to about my cheek last year but I cut it to here," she pointed a little past her eyebrow, "so I could hide it when I wanted to."

She blew her side bangs out of her eyes.

"G-Good thing I did."

Jack thumbed the handle of his razor before he pointed at her hair.

"Your highlights are thinning out by the way," he pointed out before he moved to put his razor back into his belt until later.

And she whirled to stare into the mirror beside him.

"What?! So fast already? But I just got them!"

When she huffed annoyedly, Jack eyed her funny – by her tone, it sounded like she'd been through this before.

"Every time I dye my hair, no matter what I do, it doesn't last!" she explained and looked at him. "I even told that hair stylist to use her strongest mix but, ugh, it's why I dyed my hair different colors in sophomore year."

Jack rose an eyebrow.

"Why did you?"

She shrugged with a slight smile. "Because I could get away with it."

Of course. Typical 'I'll-do-what-I-want-not-because-I'm-princess-but- because-I'm-adorkable' Tooth.

Jack shot her a half-smile and shrugged.

"Don't worry. Mine washes out quickly too, that's why I'm always doing redoing it."

And after she pulled her strands, Tooth sighed. He was right, her gold highlights didn't shine so lustrously as they did a couple days ago.

"Well, that sucks," and suddenly her eyes grew wide as Jack moved to explain. "It must be a–"

"Gene thing."  
_"Gene_ thing."

She smirked and he rolled his eyes.

"Our hair follicles are probably stronger than most," he guessed as he rummaged through his backpack. "Chemical dyes probably don't seed into the core of our strands like most people.

Tooth kept pulling at her bangs. "_Seed?"_

"Penetrate," he said logically.

She nodded absentmindedly.

_"Fascinating, Captain,_" she said in her best Spock voice and Jack grinned as he looked through his clothes.

"Star Trek?"

"You have your shows, I have mine."

Jack shook his head a little. "I haven't watched a show in ages. The last time I did, I think Phoebe was trying to explain to Ross who his lobster was."

Tooth grinned, feeling all giddy and threw herself back on the bed. "I didn't know you watched Friends."

"I didn't. One of my partners from the Winter division did."

Tooth instantly sat back up. "W-Winter division?"

But Jack tossed her a knowing smile that sent her cheeks into a flush.

"I'll tell you another time, okay?"

She nodded humbly. "Sure. You can go back to hair."

"What was I saying?" Jack looked up for a second before it came back – he and Tooth were getting way too comfortable...and despite himself, he liked it. "Oh right, I think dyes just sit on the surface of our hair instead...on the bright side, we can wash it out faster in emergencies."

Tooth turned to give him a raised eyebrow.

"And just, _how_ many more emergencies are you planning on getting us into?"

He smiled. "Not many more."

And she blushed, but when he looked away ready to start duct-taping some compartments inside his backpack again, Jack glared suddenly.

"What's this?"

When Tooth leaned sideways, he watched the ex-operative pull out a small bottle filled with green goop inside it. It moved around the bottle slowly like molasses and it looked sickly. But the bottle on the side read the ingredients of a hair product.

"What is this, hair dye?" he mumbled incredulously as Tooth stood up to stand beside him and look at it. "Must be from Aster."

"But it's green!" she raised both eyebrows. "And I mean, okay, the blue tips work on _him_ but I don't think looking like leprechauns is gonna get _us_ anywhere."

"Wait, hang on," Jack stopped her and he bravely uncorked the top to take a cautious whiff. Almost immediately, his eyes widened, recognizing the smell of the compound.

"It's bleach..."

"What is it?"

"It's a hair dye remover. It's got a bleach compound."

Tooth eyed him peculiarly."You just know?"

After he recapped it, he twirled the tiny, clear bottle in his hand.

"I have to, remember? If the time calls for it, I can use this to strip out the dye and make my hair white again."

And Tooth couldn't help but smile. She always wondered what Jack's real hair looked, always coming to the conclusion that it'd definitely be him. Until she realised–

"W-Wait, I don't want white hair too if it's gonna strip out mine!" she frowned. Then she grabbed the part of her bangs where her blonde streak was still hiding.

"I understand, I mean...I'll want _this_ back one day b-but that seems like too much of a risk for me, Jack. I don't wanna_ bleach_ it out!"

Jack looked at her before he went rummaging through his backpack again. Then he found two other bottles – one filled with dark brown (almost black) liquid and the other a golden yellow.

"I guess he already figured that for you."

When he tossed her the two bottles, Tooth's mouth fell open and she smiled. Opening one quickly, she sniffed it and realised it smelled like the healing biotic he'd given Jack before he left.

"I think the Center gene stimulant is in this too," she told him and he looked at it. "Maybe it'll help my genetic hair situation."

Jack shrugged.

"Aster _did_ say he'd leave us things that would help us."

"Maybe North supplied it to him," Tooth suggested. "His scientists knew how to stop a Pitch Black pathogen and North's probably told them about the Center gene. Otherwise he wouldn't have given it to us."

"Maybe, but I'm not gonna use it," Jack said, waving a hand dismissively. "You can if you want. You can go first too."

Tooth shrugged and went to her bag to start looking through it again. Jack went to check the bathroom to make sure everything was alright.

"Soo..." she started as he was out of sight. She then grabbed all the things she needed and wadded them into a ball to hold. Her new pajamas and clean undergarments from the Russian department store were soft in her hands. The rest of her outfits were still in her bag.

"Does that mean I actually _can _sleep tonight?"

"_Yes,_" he answered back with little edge in his voice before he chuckled from the bathroom. "It's Christmas, even I'm not _that_ crazy."

But he was taking a long time in the bathroom, making weird banging noises.

"_You sure about that?"_ she muttered to herself as she collected the last of her things.

She guessed he was probably checking for hidden cameras or bugs because he was her paranoid spy–

'_Friend-wise!' _she berated herself. _'__**Friend**__-wise...well, not even since he's claimed to stop friendzoning me for whatever god awful reason.'_

Ick.

A second later, he walked out and smiled.

"We're good. This place is safe."

"Okay cool," Tooth sighed. She was really too tired to start any sort of fight again so just smiled. "I can go now?"

And he smirked.

"Have fun."

And she blushed and smacked him in the arm.

"Don't say that!" she stuck out her tongue at him and moved around him.

And Jack smiled at her back as she went into the room, committing to memory his journey with her starting from when they touched down in the Buffalo airport to now – sure it wasn't what he was expecting (bullet in his chest _definitely _included) but he was thankful, absolutely thankful.

Tooth closed the bathroom door and threw her clothes on the sink. When she looked at the sink, she blinked.

He left the bottle of Aster's hair dye remover for her to use.

She smiled.

After brushing her teeth happily for two minutes straight (happily squealing in her head), Tooth then started her relaxing shower, pursing her lips and thinking about everything at once – whilst washing the grime away and grimacing at sore parts on her body.

Who knew that she'd end up in a hotel room with Jack **again?** At least _this_ time they weren't trying to kill each other, they weren't even arguing or screaming. They were, dare she say, civil? It was so weird, but she couldn't complain. For all she and Jack went through, they deserved to be somewhere with some level of peace and restoration.

After about twenty minutes, Tooth hopped out with a towel around her and her hair. She sighed gratefully and thanked the Flying Spaghetti Monster that this hotel was actually stock full of towels!

After she put on her oversized pajama top, she rubbed the blue silk material thoughtfully. It was really comfy and as she rolled up the long sleeves, she realised it went past her mid-thigh.

_...Why_ did she pick this size again?

Oh right. Comfy!

Then she went to the sink and used the hair dye removal, Aster had left them.

Tooth sniffed it before she rinsed out her hair. Then with a brave inhale, she applied half the biotic material and let the potion do it's magic.

Once Tooth started running it over her strands, it did it's work. and she was shocked at the results. She thought she'd have to strip her hair with the first bottle's dye remover or wash her hair out seventy times before it worked. But North's scientists _did_ in fact create a hair dye remover for Center gene carriers.

It used the same active stimulant, and as Tooth continued to wash out her hair, the mixture further strengthened her hair follicles, allowing them to expel any chemical 'seeding' (as Jack called it) around them. And in stunned silence, Tooth watched all the colors milk away and go into the drain.

She then applied the last two bottles, happily awaiting her virgin hair colours of dark brown and one strike of gold. And this time, with the gene compound inside the dye, the dye used the same healing factor found in the healing biotic to recover all the lost pigment in her strands by actually penetrating them with the gene's permission. It made no sense, as she thought about how hair dye worked, but her hair liked it and soon, Tooth realised she was back to regular dark-haired, one-streaked self.

She was proud of her streak, now proud of her mother in some little way for being a GUARDIAN, and it connected her to Tatiana and the girls.

It also reminded her that she had a Center gene just like Jack, and even though she probably didn't have any gifts like the GUARDIANs since she was a hybrid (except for her language skill), they were all connected.

She suddenly felt reborn, losing the old, concealed old part of her and returning to power.

When she was done, Tooth looked at her wet hair in the mirror and smiled. It was all dark again and her blonde streak was smiling at her in the center of her bangs. Twirling it thoughtfully, she sighed before looking at the rest of her reflection and decided to put on pants – standing on the cold bathroom tiles in her boycuts made her legs cold.

Until she realised–

Tooth flew around looking for her pajama bottoms but didn't see them.

"_Bloody_–_Cr-Crap, I forgot my pants!"_

She instantly freaked and rubbed her wet scalp.

But hadn't she wadded them with the rest of her clothes? _Had _she bought pajama pants?!

"H-Holy hell..." she murmured and she spun at the door. Tooth realised that maybe she hadn't. Back in her dorm and in the castle, she never really wore pants to bed because she liked to wear shorts. But they didn't have shorts in the Moscow department store and it completely slipped her mind when Jack left her to shop for her own undergarments.

Now she was gonna pay for it.

'_O-Okay, don't panic!'_ she thought. _'Just let Jack pass you your spy pants so you ca...Argh, but those pants are so tight!'_

And there was so way in _hell_ she was wearing skinny jeans in a comfy bed like that!

A knock came at the door.

"_You almost done in there?" _Jack called. _"'Cause I actually want to use the hot water and I think you're using it a–"_

"Excuse me?!" she laughed nervously and crossed her arms.

Then she got an idea.

"F-Fine, you can use it! I-In fact, you can come in right after me, okay?"

And Jack chuckled. _"Okay, thanks. Just let me grab my things."_

Tooth sighed under her breath.

There, problem solved. Jack would switch with her and if she ran around him quick enough and jumped into bed, then he wouldn't catch her half-clothed thinking she was some minx.

And even if he tried anything, _she'd _be the one on the side with all the weapons.

"_Okay, I'm coming,"_ he called again. _"And I'm telling you all this because I'm showing you respect, remember?"_

"T-That's my good bodyguard!" she teased and once Tooth collected her stuff and cleaned everything, she blushed ten shades of red before she unlocked the bathroom door – she hoped he wouldn't get the wrong idea...well, a part of her did.

She sighed pathetically at herself.

"_...I'm knocking the door now."_

"Oh my god, Jack, you don't need to tell me that!"

"_Re-__**spect**__. Remember?"_

But Tooth groaned (dropping her dirty clothes to cover her thighs) and threw the door open just to beat him to it.

His knuckle was raised to knock but he stopped midway when he looked down at her. Her dark hair was back again with no gold highlights in sight. And like a pretty picture, her blonde streak was back in the center of her bangs.

He grinned softly.

"You're you again," he commented thoughtfully and she smiled back before she tried to move around him quickly.

"I-I saved you half, but y-yup." And she popped the 'p' just to tease him. "I'm me again."

Jack then moved around her through the door but before he closed it, he turned back to smile at her.

"I'm glad."

And she smiled back.

"Thanks, Jack."

Then he went to close it – but not before flicking his eyes down and smirking.

"Nice view."

Then he shut the door on her face before she kicked it.

"That's not showing respect!" and at the exact same time, he copied her from the inside of the bathroom.

And when Jack chuckled behind the door, Tooth collapsed against the wall beside it – still blushing, and still smiling warmly.

Tooth shut her eyes, heart racing a minute. She put a hand over it to cover its pounding.

The more he smiled to match his always-suave, slick demeanor, the more Tooth knew he was going to kill her. But she couldn't deny how incredibly happy she was for him getting his life back to together and – sure, his life still pretty much sucked...but at least there were pieces being picked up and a heart still intact underneath it all.

And what a handsome heart it was.

...And she frowned to herself.

This was not good.

Jack still made her nuts about him – but they were friends now. Or, whatever the hell _this_ classified as without the word 'friend' in it. Because she wished she could give him her heart, and let him see how much he was taking her over with every day, _every hour_, that kept passing. But that would further complicate things – and she was _already_ complicating complicated things that made Jack complicated.

And it sucked.

When she removed her hand from her heart, she opened it and looked down at her palm. It was shaking slightly.

She closed her mouth defiantly to stop a sigh from coming out. With his acute hearing, Jack would hear her on the other side.

Toothiana then moved away from the wall with a fleeting glance at the door. Once she heard the shower go off, she pushed her hair behind her ears and looked around the room wistfully.

They only had a few more hours before all this peace would end and they would be back on track again.

She had to count herself lucky for even getting this far with him, but soon she'd have to bottle it all up and be ready to fight. Ready to fight for her sisters, herself, for Jack, the other GUARDIANs and whoever else was on Pitch's death list.

"But fight _how?_" she huffed and crossed her arms.

Jack said it himself the last time they stayed the night in a hotel. The self-defence moves she learned from her castle guards were rusty and didn't work, so what could she do?

What good was it to just know how to use a gun if she couldn't defend herself without it? She could hurt herself or someone else – just like that ELF back in Wales when she almost shot Mr. Bangkot.

She sighed angrily.

Forgetting all about her Jack-problems (not to mention her pants), Tooth was suddenly fired up. She stood on the carpet in the center of the room and tried to remember her stances that the castle guards taught her anyway.

"_Stay solid,"_ the princess mumbled to herself. Then she firmly planted her feet on the ground.

"Above the chin, and elbows in," Tooth recited then lifted her fists close to either side of her jaw and tightly tucked in her elbows. Next, she put one foot a little ahead of the other and turned her body slightly to the left – it didn't matter to her which since she was neither left nor right-handed.

She sure as hell couldn't run or do wall tricks like Jack. And she pouted when she remembered all those times when Mr. Sanderson asked if she'd like to join him for Tai Chi exercises in the morning – she always declined, saying she had important things to do (reading, eating fruit in the market, and surfing the internet) – and now she sorely regretted it. It looked boring, but seeing how Edmund used it to deflect Jack the Freakin' Ninja so easily made her instantly cringe with disappointment.

"Maybe I should've tried it out," she sighed to herself. As Tooth started to throw weak hooks at invisible people and building muscle strength and speed, she tried to ignore the sound of the running water behind her.

Now was not the time to think about Jack in the shower – _never_ was the time, actually.

Especially when he was soaking wet an–

'_Tooth! Oh my GOD!'_

She gasped angrily and stopped for a second to braid her dark, wet hair messily over one shoulder.

"Come on, T," she mumbled gently to herself.

For the next ten minutes, Tooth tried to throw punches at the right strike zones, remembering which knees to bend, and what foot to bring forward to help her.

But she grew more tired and ended up bumping into a lot of things.

"Dammit!"

And when she finally fell backwards after a horrible straight punch, Jack caught her under her arms.

"What the hell are you doing?" he gaped and Tooth gasped.

"St-St..." she stuttered and blushed red. "Stop doing that!"

"Me?! Oh my g..." Jack sighed and rolled his eyes before lifting her back up. When she turned to face him, she saw he was back in his black track pants and his white Henley shirt again with his sleeves pushed up and his top unbuttoned. His brown-white hair was also clinging to his forehead and his face was cleanly shaven.

And he smelled awesome.

"Sorry!" she scratched her neck nervously. "I was just–"

"What? Drunk kick-boxing?"

She huffed and crossed her arms – and that's when Jack realised that _she_ hadn't realised that she wasn't wearing pants yet so her legs were everywhere. But then she started talking again.

"Well, do you want me to get shot?"

He looked back at her wildly.

"What?!"

"I mean _figuratively,_ dumbass!" she piped. "There's gonna be another fight coming, I just know it! And at one point in this spy story, I'll need to kick someone's ass."

"But you can't even hold your stance straight, let alone throw a good enough pu–"

"What about my kicks?" she butt in and put her hands on my hips. "What about all those guys I've kicked in th–"

"So what, you're gonna run up to every Nightmare we come across and assume they won't be ready for a kick to the groin?" Jack said exasperatedly before he walked to her. "Tooth, that's not always gonna work. If they're good at a martial art like Jujutsu, they can stop anything you throw at them and grab your gun, grab your _fist_. And if it's Judo, they can have you pinned down in a second! You're _not_ big enough or strong enough to stop these guys!"

And Tooth wanted to fight – she wanted to defend herself. But he wasn't saying what he was saying to hurt her feelings or belittle her, he was just making rational observations.

And dammit all to hell, **as usual**, Jack was right.

So she ran a hand down her glossy braid then threw her arms out.

"Well...w-what about fast enough?"

Jack paused and squinted his eyes. "What?"

"Jack, I _know_ I'm not strong, or big, and heck, I'm not even an Olympic track star," she huffed again and it came out sorta shaky before she glared at him again. "But you know me by now...Y-You know I _can't_ just stand around and let everyone fight without me at least trying, with me at least _being_ prepared to."

He shut his mouth as she continued.

"I may have been born the Center gene, Jack. B-But I'm not you...I can't move elements, I can't control people, a-and I'm not a genius! All I have are weird physical changes and being multilingual, but those won't save anyone in a fight...I don't _have_ some amazing gift. So can you at _least_ help me to dodge or get out of a hold?" she clenched her fists. "I have sisters I need to protect and fight for. I need to do this for _them_, for me, and for _you..._A-And the, you know, others who might need help."

Jack stared at her for a moment and crossed his arms. As he stared at her thoughtfully, she hugged herself and glared up at him.

But a moment later, he sighed and rubbed his neck – he wasn't annoyed though.

"Sorry, I got mad," he apologized before he started walking around her. "When I was in the shower, I...I actually _was_ going to suggest the same thing too."

"Really?"

"Yeah. But then you started talking about kicking guys in the balls again and I thought that's what you _wanted_ to keep doing. So I sorta panicked."

"And shins," she pointed out. "Don't forget shins."

And when he paused in his walk and shot her with 'that look', Tooth rolled her eyes.

"I'm dead," she said. "I'm _dead_ in this war unless you teach me _something_. So come on, Jack, please."

And his glare instantly transformed into a half smile, brushed teeth shining through.

"I know, I know. Hang on...I'm thinking what's good," and he started to circle her with a hand stroking his chin. He was glad his face would stay smooth again for the next couple months. Tooth meanwhile smirked a little – he looked like a teacher about to assess a student...but the kind of teacher whose handsomeness made Tooth want to stop in the middle of the street and get hit by traffic.

How ironic.

"Wait," she chuckled nervously. "I thought you only knew tae kwon do and that parkour thing you do. You know others?"

"I was a GUARDIAN, Tooth," he pointed out as he circled her. "I had to learn a little bit of everything."

"So you're a Jack of All Trades, hm?" she said and he smirked down at her.

"Nope, I'm a Master of All," he leered.

"Your ego's filling the room," she joked in a singsong voice and Jack chuckled.

"Okay so..." he started and Tooth fell silent again as he continued putting her body size against all the past things she could do. She felt slightly uncomfortable but otherwise didn't think anything of it.

"You're gonna need to learn soft style techniques since they don't take the offensive, but they take years to perfect and we don't have the time."

"Obviously."

"Obviously," he smirked back. Then he dropped his voice as he started talking to himself, remembering everything from the gym earlier. "_Dodging and minimal blocking I can show you...but...not aikido. Can't risk you grappling, that's too close to catch a Nightmare in a hold. Definitely not clinching either. And there's no way in hell I'm putting you through a hand-to-hand...But maybe joint locking?"_

"Wait, didn't you say that you're a belt black? Like ninth level or something?" Tooth asked and crossed her arms. She looked at him incredulously. "Doesn't it take like _five_ years to get even the first one?!"

Jack eyed her knowingly. "I started learning since I was seventeen but they accelerated it once I joined the company," he explained. "And the Center gene made it possible for a lot more b–Tooth, don't ask. Even _I _don't know how it worked but it did and I'm grateful...You should be too. But don't worry, that's hard-style, stand-up fighting. It's pretty direct and violent."

"Yeah, I agree," Tooth nodded.

And she did agree, remembering how lethal Jack was against eight Nightmares while simultaneously protecting her and dodging their hits. Still, listening to Jack list off all these skills he knew and learned was really interesting and pretty impressive.

It was also a little hot but she'd never say – she didn't say _anything_ really as he continued mumbling to himself.

Then he finally paused in front of her. He suddenly remembered all the times she went spinning and how quick her feet were when she depended on it.

Jack uncrossed his arms.

"Okay, maybe a little Bagua might help," he offered. "But just the basic understanding of smooth coiling and uncoiling and circular step patterns."

"Bog who?"

Jack smiled.

"Baguazhang," he said. "It was the last martial art I was trying to learn before the program shut down."

Tooth instinctually translated it with her gene: _Eight Trigram Palm_ – and she blinked.

"Why'd you want to learn _that?"_ Whatever the heck it was.

"It's Yin-style specialised in quick, long-range strikes. And when I got my staff, I knew I had to develop a way to fight with it. _You_ ever try to fight with a stick?"

And Tooth laughed. "_No_. Because people will just yank it out of my hands."

"Exactly," and when Jack weaved his hands together leisurely behind his neck, she inwardly cooed.

"So that's why I started learning it for the evasive nature...and a little bit of kendo."

When her jaw dropped, Jack rolled his eyes and pushed it back up for her.

"We're here for _you_, remember?" he smirked and she blushed.

"U-Uh right...bagua right?"

And he nodded again.

"It'll help you develop spatial awareness so you can fly in and out of the way of objects...and people."

Tooth's eyebrows rose high on her head.

"That'd be a great help!" she offered.

"But I can't teach you a lot so we'll go over the basic principles of grounding to help you focus. That okay?"

"_More_ than okay," she said smiling ear-to-ear and Jack started to move furniture out of the way for space.

"Then I'll teach you a bit of self-defence, you know, _the right way_," and she rolled her eyes, "but you'll have to trust me, okay?"

And Tooth knew from his tone, he was still hanging onto everything that left him insecure.

So she smiled.

"Trust _me_, Jack," and she dropped her shoulders relaxingly, "I feel safer when I'm with you...Uh w...Well, more now than I did before."

And he looked at her for brief moment – but when she nodded encouragingly, he grinned softly.

"Okay then, let's get started."

...

"Twist back again, Tooth...Okay, good. Watch your left foot, it's about to hit something."

Tooth hesitated for a second before she moved her bare leg sideways at Jack's instruction. She was still in her boycut underwear, but after Jack pointed it out (knowing she'd beat him up if he didn't bring it up soon) and she refused to put on her horrible spy tights again (after explaining she hadn't bought shorts in Moscow and couldn't fight in skinny jeans), Tooth and Jack realised they didn't feel so awkward about it after a couple of minutes.

Jack was all business about the training and Tooth pushed down her inhibitions almost instantly because the focus was getting her stronger. Plus, her top was so long it might as well have been a dress so neither noticed after a while and were comfortable as they'd always been. And without her tight pants, Tooth moved around easier than she could.

By the time the sun had long gone down, the winds picked up the snow outside their window but Jack continued to help Tooth hone her basic body coordination and firm foundations. All of the training in Bagua went to her legs. The point was to help her dodge and get away quick enough, so he helped her body to develop a muscle memory in flexibility and fluidity.

He taught her what he could in the simplest way about two-part and three-part-stepping, along with heel-toe and mud-walking. Tooth had no clue what he was saying but she tried her best to understand, reminding herself that it was all about knowing what her feet could do and where to put them.

Afterwards, he showed her basic self-defense techniques.

And that was more interesting. It was where Jack devoted most of their time. Jack just wanted to teach her Bagua in case she was ever surrounded by things and people and needed to understand how to move and trust her feet. But he knew she'd probably never have to circle an opponent and predict their next moves – she was short and the Nightmares would assume she wasn't equal in skill so they'd just lunge for her. So using that to his advantage, he taught her how to dodge, block blows before they hit her, and recognise strike zones on his body that were ever open for her to hit.

_Two hours later_

"Sense me coming, Toothiana," Jack instructed deep and ready. "Judge your distance. If they're an arm's length away, expect them to punch. Anything farther than that, expect a kick. And anything even _closer_, means elbows or grabbing might start."

Her breath grew shaky.

Tooth really didn't want to imagine that someone might come at her like that – no one _ever_ had. But it _was_ Pitch Black they were talking about. He hired the worst mercenaries for his organization and if they were capable of kidnapping tiny little girls, then it was smart that Jack , already a master at combat, was preparing her for the worst.

She hummed in agreement, ready for his last go. She'd gotten the motions surprisingly quick and now Jack wanted to see if she could actually use them or if she would freeze up in a legit assault.

He hoped the latter wouldn't happen.

_"Anything_ can be a weapon, so be resourceful. And remember to always let them come at you first, alright?" Jack pointed out and she nodded. But even though Jack's gaze was steady and his emotions were calm, he couldn't help the apologetic feeling driving itself through him.

Tooth wasn't supposed meant to be doing _any _of this – she was supposed to be celebrating Christmas with her sisters, in her castle, and relaxing after winter exams...not getting ready to fight an ex-operative in a some random hotel thousands of miles away from home with her family shattered. But she was fighting for it all back, just the look in her eyes told him that, and he was honored to have known her for it.

It made him like her more but he wouldn't dare say. So Jack, bent his knees and showed he was ready to start.

"Oh and don't forget," he mentioned lastly. "Retreat is a tactic so don't ever think you need to stay in a fight just because you get into one."

"Got it," Tooth nodded and bent her knees too. Jack nodded absentmindedly when he noticed the posture. "Ready."

He paused for a moment.

"...Go!"

Jack immediately lunged at Tooth, careful but fast. At the last two steps, he opened his mouth.

"I'm coming on the right!" Jack said and properly pivoted on the ball of his right foot to lift his left one, ready to throw it into a gentle imitation of side kick. "What do you do?"

"Move left!" And she moved on the ball on her foot to shift herself away from his foot and watched his heel catch air. She gasped lightly before he moved again.

"Here comes a left punch," he grunted and was ready to through a soft (but quick) straight punch with his fist. With Tooth's reaction time, she sensed it and threw up the back of her right arm instantly to deflect it. When it went off course and there was an opening at Jack's chest, she pivoted on her graceful feet again and twisted her body slightly, ready to throw an upward punch at his xiphoid.

"Found the opening!" she puffed.

"Good," Jack said but he expertly leaped back before her fist could fully collide with the bone between his lungs. "But how about this?"

Then he rushed forward before she could blink and went to wrap his hands gently around her throat.

Tooth gasped.

But a millisecond before he touched her, her hands flew up on pure instinct and knocked both his wrists away. As they flew off course, Jack nodded.

"Good, you g–"

But he couldn't finish when he suddenly felt her hands around her neck. Tooth's eyes burned intensely and when he thought it was over, she planted her front foot steady between them and he knew what was coming.

She was going to knee him in the groin.

Then she thrust forward – but not nearly as far as he thought. Tooth stopped herself a couple inches of the way and watched with a smug expression as Jack's face instinctively cringed for the incoming pain.

After a moment, she leaned up to his ear.

"I'm not_ that_ mean," Tooth teased.

Jack sighed almost gratefully and threw his hands on the wall close behind her to stop himself from stumbling forward.

"Yeah,_ thanks_," he said with an eye-roll but then he looked down at her. "But next time, uh...you have to remember to shoot your hips forward while your kneeing someone. You'll get a stronger drive."

And when Tooth realised how close she was bringing him with her hands as he was bracing himself over her with the wall, she blushed.

"Right, o-okay...awesome," she stuttered.

The two then ripped away from each other and coughed awkwardly.

Jack rubbed his neck and pushed up his sleeves again and went to roll his wrist.

"Uh, good job," he mumbled and pointedly looked away. Tooth rubbed her neck.

"Thanks for teaching me," she started before she shook her head a little to clear her head. "A-And you were right...it really was more effective than what my guards taught me."

And at that, Jack stopped feeling awkward about himself and smirked.

"See? I told you."

And she rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I know you did. And I'm still trying to regain blood in these limbs."

But when she chuckled weakly, Jack stopped rolling his wrist to look at her.

"But at least we're doing this," he said. "I feel better knowing you've got at least some background on dodging and footwork and sometimes that's all you'll need."

"I'll take _anything_, as long as it'll help me save my sisters and _stop _this bastard," Tooth said before she clenched her fist. Then she looked at him.

"Thanks, Jack," she said and the princess shot a small smile before she moved to unbraid her hair by the bed.

"And...don't be angry with your mother, Tooth," Jack said suddenly.

Tooth froze, hesitant.

"Huh?"

She turned her head over her shoulder and looked at him, waiting. Jack was busy pushing all the furniture back.

"Now that I...remember I wasn't a monster after all," he said tiredly, as he pushed things around but Tooth stopped him.

"You _aren't,_" she told him and he looked back at her.

"Yeah...but you have to believe me. Project GUARDIAN was created to protect people from terrorists. We did what we could to keep even the other spies around the world safe. That's why no one knew about us and why our abilities were covered up."

Tooth nodded and went to her bag.

"You're right," she sighed and she blew her dark bangs out of her eyes. "You're always right."

"And I'm your hero too, remember?"

When Tooth snapped her head up at him, a blush came on her face. There was a tease in his voice that she'd never heard before. And as she looked, he also had a smirk on his face.

Suddenly his smirk transformed into mischievous grin and Tooth thought she'd die.

"Well?" he laughed and then raised an eyebrow. "Am I?"

_'Oh god, Jack, don't smile at me like that!' _she inwardly groaned. _'You're making this 'friend-not-a-friend deal' harder for me._

She could barely handle it, the more he kept smiling. It was like it was meant to always be there but he'd been suppressing it for years. And she couldn't help that she was falling for him over and over again.

"Stop teasing me!" she laughed before she smiled again. "B-But yeah...you are."

And his smirk dropped instantly into a smile.

"So in the same sense, so was your mother."

And Tooth did think it over, _trying _to feel bitter, _wanting _to argue. But the fire wasn't there and as she watched Jack nod encouragingly, she looked down.

Her mother had been a GUARDIAN. A _GUARDIAN_. Which meant she'd gone through the same training as Jack and had to endure everything that made him come out as the man she crushed on heavily. And after everything she'd told Jack, everything she saw and believed, in him and North and Edmund, and in every word of the program founder's apology video, she knew the GUARDIANs weren't cold killing machines.

Sure, they did the worst jobs imaginable – but it was only so that others wouldn't.

And whether or not her pregnancy was the cause of unforeseen pain and suffering (something she thought would take her a long time not to forget), at the root, Tooth started to soothe the stitch in her heart, telling herself that her mother hadn't created her to be an experiment.

Tooth played with the end of her damp hair. Jack watched her softly.

"Dad did say he loved her..." and Tooth gulped down a heavy lump. "And I could tell, even when I was little...that he missed her every day."

And Jack nodded encouragingly, warm fire radiating from his core and reaching out to touch her with a cool hand. "Remember what you said...Choose love over fear."

So she had to smile.

Because she believed her Dad, and she believed Jack. She had to have born out of love, not as a science experiment. Her father was too gentle and compassionate for that...and it was just the Center gene, and the company, that took advantage of them.

And for the first time in a long time, Toothiana wished she could meet her mom again, wondering what she looked like, sounded like, before all of this. And it made her teary.

"Besides..."

Tooth blinked out of her dream bubble and looked back at Jack. As he watched, she wiped a corner of her eye. His own grew wide with worry, thinking he'd said something _again_ to hurt her – but she smiled hopefully as she still hung on his words.

So he gulped and looked back down to his bag.

"Besides," he continued. "That woman at the bar doesn't know you, Tooth. She doesn't know what you've done for me."

And Tooth couldn't have been happier.

"I know...Thanks."

"So you're feeling better?"

"...Absolutely."

Everything was falling into place. Being with him, on this adventure, heck this mission, was like it was it meant to all happen and in the right way.

After today, nothing could stop her anym–

_"Shit!"_ Jack hissed.

She looked up instantly when he threw a hand to his heart and blinked down.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I just thought I'd replace the bandages and not worry about using the–Son of a..._Ow!_"

Jack then started to take off his shirt right in front of her and she nearly had a heart attack.

She didn't think she should be reacting the way she was – he called her his partner for Pete's sake! But that didn't mean her attraction for him stopped. She wasn't sure if she could handle his body again, especially since the last time he was shirtless they'd pretty much...

_'Oh god, Tooth!'_

So she tried to look away again to give him his personal space. Hopefully he'd leave on his pants and just finish in the bathroom so sh–

"_JACK!"_

He nearly jumped out of his skin at her screech.

Jack whirled on her, holding his shirt in his hand.

"Yeah, I know, I _know!_"

She would've left him alone...leaving him to his perfect muscles and what-not – until she caught his bandage over his heart turning red.

When he saw what she was gasping at, he looked down and sighed.

"Why didn't you say anything?!" she panicked. "I_ knew_ something was up in Burgess when you–and then you kept and I–"

"Tooth," Jack groaned. He sat down on the bed as she immediately began running around to find things.

"Does it hurt? Wait, of course it probably hurts that's you–and _argh,_ you never listen to me, you–"

As she ran passed him, Jack shot out a hand and grabbed her wrist. She skidded to a halt.

"Will you calm down?!" he snapped. A second later, he let go of her hand and moved to get his leather jacket. He then pulled out the small green vial that Aster had given him.

"Aster gave me this, remember?" he explained and held it up for Tooth to see. "It's gonna help accelerate my cell regeneration."

Tooth squinted down at it.

"Well, why the _heck _didn't you use it?! Shouldn't you have when you changed? Wait...H-How do you even know that?" she said slightly put off. "Cell regeneration sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie. It's not real."

But Jack threw her a look.

"And you're a master on 'What is Real' after everything you've experienced in the last three days?"

Tooth opened her mouth.

"Ah...yeah, okay nevermind."

And he smirked when he caught her at a pause and took a seat in the armchair as he passed the vial to Tooth.

"Don't worry...I have used it before," he continued as he started taking off the bandage on his chest. "My body already heals pretty quickly without it. I figured I could let the wound heal on it's own and save the vial...but I guess I can't."

And Tooth nodded absentmindedly – she remembered wondering about the cut on his cheek the night he fought those Nightmares in Wales. It looked so painful when they left but when she woke upon arrival 7 hours later, it was gone and he looked healthier. She thought maybe she'd imagined it...but then his quick recovery after the bullet hole proved to her that maybe it was a gene thing.

And it was.

Suddenly Jack winced. She looked at him worriedly, as he tried to reach behind him to pull off the bandage on his exit wound but his hand wouldn't reach very far.

"You weren't like this two minutes ago when we were fighting!" she panicked.

"I think I got secondary contamination after we left," he grunted and frowned against the pain he was trying to control. "Bullet wounds, especially chest ones...ugh, they sometimes go through another infection after a couple hours of treatment. But they flare up at random times."

Tooth knitted her brows together.

"Don't forget all the physical stress we went through after you woke up," she added. "The company, you in the Judgement Room, th...the memories."

And Jack nodded.

"Yeah," he sighed. When he dropped his hand again to relax his arm muscle, Tooth frowned.

"Let me help," she offered and she made to grab a wet cloth from the bathroom and motioned him over to the bed.

Jack looked at her.

"You sure?" he asked and Tooth was surprised that he didn't try to argue her. It made her smile when she came back and nodded her head.

"'Cause I mean," he started and rubbed the back of his neck. He'd already gone and grabbed extra gauze and bandages from his backpack.

"It's not a cut, Tooth. I don't want you to freak out."

"Jack, I had to _help_ Edmund sew you up after you passed out on me at the Warren. So trust me, I've already seen at its worse."

'_The blood, the bullet, the Nightmare infection, everything,' _she mentally added – but she didn't need to tell him that.

And when his face paled slightly, she shook her head with a smile. He could so dramatic sometimes.

Tooth motioned him to come over again. And after two blinks, Jack threw a hand up.

"Fine, whatever," he sighed and he got up from the armchair and moved over the bed. Tooth clambered on it and moved back until she was kneeling behind him.

"Be careful," he warned and she huffed – then she made it her mission for the next ten minutes or so not to stare down at his defined back muscles.

"I know."

Tooth peeled off the gauze and winced when she saw the bullet wound still there.

Aster's surgical thread had sewn up the hole but the blood leaking through was enough to scare her into thinking that it would rip open at any point. It also made her want to cry out, thinking about how close she was to losing him (and that made her _really_ want to smack Jack in the head for pushing himself all this time).

As she fell silent, Jack's forehead creased with worry.

"Tooth?"

"Uh no, yeah! I'm good!" she stuttered and shook her head. "I'm just..."

He frowned and tried to look back at her.

"I told you. You don't have to."

"Jack! It's fine," she sighed. "Relax, will ya? You're right, it's not that bad."

Then she started to untwist the cap on the vial.

"I'm just thinking about how...too close it almost was. To your heart, I mean."

And Tooth wanted to shut up right there and then.

Jack's eyes widened slightly and he turned his head over his shoulder to look at her. Her cheeks glowing hot pink. But the second he did, he got hit with a wave of something strong.

Tooth finally pulled the cap off the vial and as the smell of the biotic floated around them, he felt his insides uncoil slightly.

Even Tooth nearly slumped in her kneeling position – she smiled instantly, comforted by the weird scent in the green liquid.

It helped brush all her awkwardness away.

"Tooth," Jack tried to started but Tooth began to clean around his wound softly and carefully. Her eyelids fell halfway over her eyes.

"Just _relax_, Jack..." she sighed and she shut her mouth and continued to do her job. She wasn't aware that the tone in her voice sent a goosebumps all up his arms.

As Tooth played nurse, he felt very reminiscent of his role as a doctor for her back on the plane...back when he wanted to hate her. Now he couldn't get her out of his mind. It made him throw his eyes to the ceiling.

Who knew tables could turn so quickly?

Tooth finished quickly, wiping all the dried blood and clear discharge from Aster's earlier medicine and Jack's wound. She then looked down at the biotic nervously before dipping two fingers into the vial. When she pulled it out, the thin, gooey liquid coated her fingertips and throwing a calming scent into her nostrils.

Against her self-control, she sighed gratefully and placed her other hand on Jack's shoulder.

"A-And I just rub this into it?" she asked for confirmation and Jack nodded.

"Yeah, my body will respond to it and do the rest by morning."

"O-Okay," she exhaled.

She then brushed her fingers gently over Jack's entrance wound and rubbed gently in a methodical circle.

Tooth vaguely wondered if her body could do the same – since she _did_ share the same powerful DNA running through him, it was possible...but she didn't dwell on it, only thinking about him for the moment.

Jack sighed as the numbing sensation in the biotic (and maybe from her touch too) started to soothe the throbbing that had been growing here. He sat stiff on the edge of the bed, gripping the sheets gently as he felt her lean down more to examine and focus on her work.

"What makes you happy?" she asked lightly.

Jack blinked.

"Hm?"

"I mean, I just–" and she thought of Wales when he asked her the same question to calm her down. But she shook her head, feeling silly. "Mm, nothing...How're you feeling?"

He said nothing and just nodded.

In her own right, Tooth was a great bodyguard too.

After a couple more seconds, Tooth stopped and pulled her fingers away from his skin. She then closed the vial, saving the last of the liquid for his exit wound, and wiped her fingers with the wet cloth.

As she placed another bandage over it she frowned at it one more time.

"_...This wounds still pretty bad."_

He blinked when he heard her mumble to herself and he dropped his head down again. He wanted to look at Toothiana but decided to keep his eyes to the floor instead.

"It's not that bad," he mumbled back but she begged to differ.

"A bullet to the chest _isn't that bad?"_ she scoffed. "What are you, a masochist?"

"_No_, but I've been shot before. I told you, remember?" he pointed out and his eyebrows furrowed together. Now that he could remember his whole life, that also meant he could remember all the horrible cuts, scrapes, and gunshots he got inflicted with as both Agent Overland _and_ JACK FROST. He opened his left hand under him and stared at his spidery-snowflake scar in his palm.

"_I've had worse,_" he muttered and when he gently closed his fist, Tooth finished placing the bandage on his back. She patted it gently then looked down, sighing deep in thought.

Then she blinked suddenly.

As Jack mulled over, he suddenly felt her fingertips on another part of his back – lower and closer to his waist.

"H-How'd you get this one?" she mumbled and poked the spot. "Wait, y-you don't have to say. I'm just being nosy, sorry."

But when she chuckled to herself, Jack's head turned over his right shoulder and he looked at her.

She stopped instantly, her pink eyes getting trapped in the intense blue gaze.

Then he flicked them down to the spot he couldn't see.

"When I...was wandering around after I woke up," he mumbled. "I travelled all the way to Tibet."

Tooth didn't say or do anything as he continued.

"I was trying to hide from the police by that time and I vaguely remembered a mission I had as GUARDIAN that took place there, so I ended up in some mountain village. But since I...since I didn't know how I was, this family let me stay with them."

Jack then looked back to the carpet.

"He was a farmer, with his wife and two boys. I only stayed with them for about a week but somehow someone got a hold of my name and they realised I was a wanted criminal. So they tried to force me out of the village."

"Because they were afraid?" Tooth looked down at the scar again. Jack glared at the patterns in the floor.

"They had every right to be," he said bitterly.

...

_Subcontinent of India, Border of Tibet, One year ago_

"Stay with us!"

The Himalayas made Jack feel like he was connected to everything and at the same time, very small.

The people living in the Himachal Pradesh mountain village, close to the snowy slope before it inclined were the nicest he'd ever met. And he guessed that it was because they were spiritually connected to the mountains.

Jack wandered into the tiny world with just a stolen winter coat, another lodger's backpack, and his case for his contact lenses. He wasn't sure why he wanted to travel all the way up there except for one thing – to hide, and pray that the international police wouldn't brave the cold to find him.

He had only planned on staying a night before moving again since he felt very nomadic. But then one of the goat herders insisted that he be a guest in his family's house, and Jack was grateful. He'd never had anyone offer him refuge and he was exhausted...plus, he'd been dying for a family and the wife and their two sons (who didn't speak English though) were very sweet.

But then a week in, one of the villagers who always travelled down to the capital city of Kullu to sell/buy from the market overhead gossip about a man all over India who was wanted for the killing of a few police and for bartering with a terrorist. Afterwards, it wasn't hard for anyone to guess that Jack was probably the one responsible.

So the father of the family stormed on him.

"WHO ARE YOU?!" The question was so abrupt that Jack jumped out of his skin.

"WHAT?!"

When he turned, he saw the mountains through the window, but he couldn't appreciate it for long.

"You were wanted!" the father said and threw down a paper written in Hindi that Jack couldn't understand – but it was police report with his name and description. He just needed someone to explain.

"You endanger this family! This village! Get out!"

"Wait, but you don't–But I–"

"GET OUT!"

Jack was then almost ganged up on by several of the village men, trying to take him away. They dragged him out of the house using arms, everyday items, and force. He fought them off easily and tried to dash back into the house to grab his things.

But he skidded to a halt just before he made it to the front door.

The farmer and his wife were standing in the front of the doorway, holding knives at their sides, holding their sons' tiny hands to try to make a point – Jack couldn't come back in and he'd be a disgrace to show violence in front of two young children.

So Jack backed away and left the village with only the clothes on his back. They never saw him again after that, thinking maybe he might've died from the cold on his journey back down the mountain (as immoral but necessary as it sounded). But Jack's body had an affinity for cold temperatures thanks to his Center Gene, and he made it out only tired, not really hungry, and alone.

After that day, every time he fell asleep, if he wasn't dreaming about Emma, Jack ended up having nightmares, replaying that image of the family in his mind.

...

Jack fell silent with good reason afterwards. Tooth leaned out slightly to catch his face but it had grown dark again.

So she frowned and poked another scar.

"And this one?"

She was almost afraid to touch the long gash line near the front of his torso – the same one she noticed each time he took off his shirt. When her fingertips brushed it, he exhaled to ignore the goosebumps rising up his skin.

He glared at the floor.

"Back when I was GUARDIAN," he grumbled. "I was undercover in a criminal ring, I had to sneak out $20 million with a team...we did it but..."

"No, it's okay," Tooth bit her lip. She loved that he wanted to share all of this with her, as disturbing as it was. Then she stroked a faint line, high on his right shoulder.

"What about _this?_"

Jack turned his head back again and eyed it briefly before he started forward again.

"Sparring incident," he said with a slight smile. "Judo grappling mishap that went too far."

And that's all he said before Tooth started to mumble to herself.

He raised both eyebrows curiously.

"What're you–"

A second later, her finger was tracing something softly over his scar.

"_Truth,"_ she whispered and traced a feather over his skin. When she opened her eyes again, Jack turned to her wide-eyed.

"...What?"

Tooth smiled sadly. She then moved to trace one on his torso, shyly but boldly. _"Lightness."_

And another feather on his last scar. _"Speed."_

When she was almost done, she pulled away.

"Every New Year's Eve, my sisters and I trace feathers on each other's foreheads and we make a wish for each other based on what we want for them."

She chuckled after.

"Sometimes they think they're funny wishing each other that they'd finally get brains or an attitude adjustment, but they mean well."

"So why're you giving me more than one wish?" he asked with a slight smirk. "You think I need a lot?"

"Psh, I _know_ you do," she teased but when she leaned over with a kind smile, his heart raced.

"No, I just want to."

"And why not my forehead?"

"I'm getting there!" she laughed and not a second later, Tooth grabbed the wet cloth and hopped off the bed. When she stood in front of Jack and when he closed his eyes obediently, she grinned with a slight blush. Tooth then lifted her hand to the wound over his heart and traced a feather over his heart.

"_Virtue."_

And finally, she pushed his bangs apart and traced a feather on his forehead.

"_And I wish for new beginnings,_" she grinned softly and her peppermint-laced breath made Jack smile slightly.

"Thanks, Tooth," he said gently and opened his eyes, as she pulled away and moved back to the bed.

"You're welcome."

Tooth wanted to ask Jack more about his judo grapple scar but he looked at the TV in thought after she went looking for more bandages.

"Now that I remember, I should set Cottontail straight," he said, referring to Aster. "I _was_ 9th dan, not 7th. Our training and our genes accelerated my speed and reaction time."

"Does that really matter?" Tooth teased.

"To guys, it does," he smirked. "Jamie always insisted on being the better fighter than I was."

And Tooth paused. Her eyebrows lifted delicately.

"Who's Jamie?" she asked, wistfully surprised. It was so exciting to learn all these things about Jack – and the more he shared, the more she was learning about the real him. Just as he was learning about her...her touch still left him humming with energy and wanting her to explain the traditions she and her sisters did. But he was content with sharing his first since she didn't want to seem to drift away from the topic.

Jack smiled grew as he looked back in front of him again. As he did, Tooth moved off the bed again and decided to patch up his front wound next.

"He was this boy that grew up with my sister and I," Jack started to explain. "He was Emma's best friend and I swear, he and his baby sister Sophie came over every day to our house."

As he spoke, the light tone in his voice started to return and something about hearing it this way made Tooth's heart soar – she was starting to hear the real Jack underneath all the espionage gear and skin. And she loved it.

"So what happened to them?" she asked with an easygoing smile. Tooth loved hearing about new people she'd never met yet, especially little kids, and as she dragged the desk chair in front of Jack to sit and face him, she smiled eagerly.

"Well, I don't know about Sophie. But you'd love her, she's...she's the cutest thing. And Jamie..."

Jack faded out slightly as Tooth went to sit in the chair and pulled it right up close to him. As she leaned slightly over his chest and under his chin, he blinked.

Then Jack shook his head a little and tried not to watch as she was about to start wiping his wound again.

He looked away.

"Well...you already saw him."

And Tooth pulled back at light speed.

"Wh-Seriously?!" she gawked. "You mean that cute boy walking with your sister in the woods? _That's _Jamie?!"

And Jack nodded with a smile still on his face – though he couldn't help the weird twinge in his chest when Tooth noticed that Jamie was a cute boy.

Toothiana said nothing for a moment and looked down at the wet cloth in her hands. A split second later, she smiled warmly for him and looked up.

"He's still taking care of her," she commented and Jack's smile grew, revealing the relief he'd been festering underneath bubble up like melted chocolate. He sighed.

"Yeah...and I'm glad."

And Tooth smiled softly before she leaned forward again and started wiping his exit wound of dry blood. It was a lot larger and looked more violent than his hole from the back – but Tooth had watched enough crime and detective shows to know that when bullets entered the body, they made a bigger wound leaving it. And even though Jack's bullet had lodged itself inside him and Aster had to surgically cut from the front to get it out, the damage was still apparent. She gulped and tried not to frown again as she kept her voice light.

"I wish I could have met them," Tooth mumbled happily and Jack nodded.

"You'd like them," he said looking sideways so as to not make things awkward for her. "Jamie loves anything weird – and just meeting you would've been enough."

Tooth smacked him with the wet cloth and laughed.

"Rude!"

Jack chuckled.

"I meant about your _eyes_, Princess Know-It-All."

"Oh haha," Tooth giggled and Jack continued.

"And Sophie's daydreams a lot. Talk about anything to do with princesses, make-believe places, or imaginary creatures, and you're good."

"But she was like a baby when you last saw her," Tooth flit her eyes up at his jaw before she looked down again with a smile. "How are you gonna know she still likes that stuff?"

"I don't know."

"I bet she's a fairy fan," the pink-eyed princess smiled. "I bought and recorded every fairy princess movie on tape for my sisters. You can never trust dvds."

Jack laughed again. "That's what I used to tell my parents."

Then Tooth lifted her head and raised an eyebrow.

"So what did you record, then?" she challenged but Jack smirked.

"You'll never know."

And she blushed before dropping her grin back onto her work. He'd mentioned his parents...but she knew not to ask yet. Toothiana then cleaned in silence for a while before she applied the biotic again – but as her fingers rubbed in circles above his strong heart, she bit her lip.

"And what about Emma?"

Jack looked down at her. Her crown of dark brown, almost black hair and blonde, feathery streak shone like a star and he smiled.

"Emma loved everything."

"That's a little bit of a stretch, don't you think?" she teased gently as ran her fingertips over the wound on his skin – she loved how the adoration for his sister showed so much in his tone. But he shook his head.

"No, I'm not kidding. Emma was up for anything. She would've loved biking, she would've loved itchy sweaters..."

Then Tooth finished and was about to pull away her green fingers from his bullet wound.

"All don–"

"–and she would've loved you."

Tooth froze. She lifted her head until it was almost eye-level with Jack's.

The princess then felt her grin return softly to her face, a blush apparent.

"R-Really?" she teased and Jack nodded.

"Would I trick you?"

"Yes! You always play tricks, you little–"

When Jack laughed, Tooth felt his chest expand with a deep breath under her fingertips. She nearly shivered and yanked her hand back from his chest. She then rolled her eyes and cleaned her fingers again.

"But I'm serious about this," Jack said and Tooth looked at him again, knowing that if he was ever as serious about his sister as she was about hers, then it was important.

And Jack nodded, catching her eyes in a long gaze.

"Emma would've liked you, Tooth...You're not an easy person to forget."

She smiled.

"Thanks, Jack," she chuckled weakly and looked down before peeking up at him a second later. His blue eyes were making everything harder than they needed to be. Maybe it was better that they'd demoted back out of the friendship status – things would've been too hard and it was better to be just partners.

But at the rate they were going, it looked like they would be best friends instead.

Jack smiled at her – he'd never met a girl his age yet that he liked so much. For him, relationships were usually a one-time sorta thing brought on by flirtation and a sudden drive for affection just to fill a void. But Tooth was already filling that void and there was nothing left he really wanted to do but know everything about her.

And Tooth pushed her hair behind her ear – she'd never been this comfortable with a guy before (especially one who pretty much dragged her to hell and back), and now she was wanting it more and more with Jack. It was pretty obvious to her, to him, and everyone around them, but she didn't care if Jack wanted to be just..._whatever-they-were_ because at least she'd managed to be on some sort of level with him. And it was great.

As she placed a new bandage on his chest again, they kept staring at each other, alternating between eye-rolls and head shakes. Until Jack bit his cheek.

"What about your sisters?" he asked cautiously. "What are they like?"

As Tooth finished pressing the gauze over his heart, she smiled up at him.

"You'll know when you meet them," she said simply. Then Jack blinked and nodded, respecting her answer.

She had a good point, all warmth aside. There was still a fight going on between them and Pitch, and they couldn't forget that her sisters were being taken one by one every day. Jack would have time to talk pleasantries later, but only after they were safe and sound like Emma.

But once he started thinking about her clones again, his mind went to other places.

"That's why," he mumbled and Tooth paused.

"What?"

As she started again, Jack shook his head and pushed the fringe of his bangs out of his eyelashes.

"When I was a GUARDIAN, they advised the female agents not to have kids."

"They did?" When she saw where his train of thought was going, she frowned. "...They did, huh?"

"It's why GUARDIANs weren't married or had relationships. But I'd assumed it was to avoid emotional compromise. But it makes sense now..."

He looked at her.

"The Center Gene affects our bodies, but having a kid inside you, with all the hormones going off, affects our DNA and backfires on us. The advisory was probably to respect your mom's situation."

Tooth looked at the carpet, squeezing her bare legs together.

"Maybe..."

"The founder _did_ say she was the best GUARDIAN the program ever had, Tooth. And I think her pregnancy transformation scared everyone but...but it meant she saved other female GUARDIANs lives by hanging on for you."

And Tooth looked up at him wide-eyed. Jack frowned a little.

"How..._did_ your mom survive? If the children from the INNOCENCE program died instantly from the gene...why didn't she and...why didn't you?"

Tooth's lips grew dry and she licked them.

She'd never thought about it like that before. Jack was right – but while he kept asking all the right questions...she didn't have the right answers.

And she frowned too. "I don't know, Jack...I don't know. But something kept her hanging on."

"That's an easy one," he said as he put on his shirt again. "She wanted to see you, obviously...But we'll get through this and figure it all out...Okay?"

And she threw him a sad smile, wondering if her mom ever_ did_ get to see her to the end.

"Okay."

And when his heavy gaze fell on her again, blinding her with his intensity, he suddenly realised something.

"Oh dammit."

Tooth frowned and raised an eyebrow.

"W-What is it?"

"I just..."

Jack rubbed a hand to his forehead under his bangs. He glared at a spot on the ground.

"I just remembered that I left my coloured contacts back at Aster's bunker."

And Tooth frowned.

"T-That's okay," she tried to reassure him. "The agencies are looking for you now with brown eyes remember? S-So maybe it's time for switch, you know?"

"I guess," Jack sighed. "But it's necessary in case something happens. And I've never gone anywhere without it."

Then Tooth raised her eyebrows and leaned in slightly.

Jack saw her and paused just in front of her.

"What?"

"Why didn't you wash the hair dye out either?" she suggested. "They're looking for a Jack with brown hair too remember?"

But he shook his head.

"The wanted lists list me as either seen with full brown hair or full white," he reminded her. "So my two-tones will continue to hide me."

"Well...for what it's worth–"

And Jack paused what he was doing to look directly up at Tooth again, she smiled.

"– I mean, I know you know you think you're not...really _you_ anymore...B-But I think your blue eyes and a full head of white hair, even though I haven't since yet for myself...really suit you."

And she brushed his bangs, slightly with her fingers and a slight grin.

But as she did, Jack suddenly felt something slap the back of his mind.

He inhaled sharply and Tooth pulled away a little, but still a couple inches away from his face.

"Wh-What's wrong?"

And like liquid fire and earthquakes, Jack's skin tingled and his heart suddenly pounded.

"Jack?"

_**"Can you hear me?"**_

Jack suddenly felt one last memory take over his senses. He kept his eyes open, like Tooth had earlier instructed, but every time he tried to remember her voice from one moment...he kept hearing it from another.

_**"Did you...What did you..."**_

_He saw blurry lights, smelled blood and moist concrete, and felt a tingle on his cheek. Warm and fluttering._

_He remembered the kiss. The one Tooth left on his cheek before her presence drifted away._

_**"You deserve better than a geek, than a princess freak like me. ****You deserve better than all of this."**_

"Jack, what d'you see?" Tooth asked and moved her fingers up again to brush his bangs out of his impossibly wide eyes. She had a tiny, hopeful smile on her face. Anything he remembered now was an added bonus to helping him remember more of who he was.

Except she didn't think for one second, that it might mean memories with her in it.

_**"******__I _really do put you through shit. I'm so sorry..."

_Her breath fluttered over him like a feather and he nearly collapsed in the senses that had swallowed him then. She'd never known how much her being there with him made him feel safe, made him feel comforted. Because while he didn't understand anything of what was happening, just hearing her voice and sensing, what was undeniably Toothiana, made Jack calm. At least until she left for a portion of the night._

_But then he sensed her again and suddenly his lips were on fire._

_**"******__A_nd I choose now."

_But he remembered it vanished, something a force of nature, being ripped away from him and he needed it back. So he pushed up to catch it, to keep it, all to himself. And the next thing he knew..._

_There were hands in his hands and hair tickling his jaw – and he wanted it more, imagining it on some subconscious as the embodiment of care and comfort._

_He imagined Tooth._

_And he held her close and moved her under him until his heart felt like it was explode. But then she pulled away and he didn't feel it anymore – because sleep took over._

_Or at least...sleep had already taken over. Hadn't it?_

"Jack?"

_Hadn't it?_

_**"******__Tha_nk you..."

Tooth frowned a little and pulled her hand away from his hair to bring it back to her lap–

–Jack caught it and held it tightly beside their faces.

She was ready to open her mouth and ask him what was wrong, but then she saw the look in his eyes.

He was staring her...but he was looking with a dark, clouded gaze. His jaw was tight and his mouth was unreadable.

But then he moved his lips, and she felt like the world had just ended.

_"...We kissed."_

Tooth's heart raced, as he leaned in dangerously close to her face.

"N-No, we didn't...R-Remember? W-We banged noses and–"

"No, not _then."_ She was petrified by the deep tenor in his tone and his glare softened.

"You _know_ what I'm talking about."

Tooth tried to focus on his eyes – not his neck, or the deep Adam's apple, or the arch in his skin the disappeared under his white Henley shirt.

"I...Jack, n–I mean..."

His words were like a fire slowly burning her at her core, and when his eyes grew at her response, she panicked. Tooth got up from the chair and pushed it back under the table, trying to move around the bed.

But Jack got up and spun to catch her wrist.

When she turned back around, he looked down at her, heart racing, fingers twitching.

"_Did _we?"

"Ja–"

"_Tooth."_

So she stopped – because what could she do, lie? Argue? No, they were past that. And Jack was smart, and Tooth was...Tooth was...

She gulped.

"...B...H-How did you know? Y-You said you..."

His eyebrows set firmly on his forehead and his jaw was tight as he clenched softly on his teeth. His dark eyes, unblinking, gazed down on her with an unknown emotion flashing through them that put her on edge.

"I did kiss you..." Jack whispered shakily. _"...d-didn't I?"_

Toothiana looked up at him, wide and afraid.

A deep flush spread across her skin and the silk of her pajamas made her feel less clothed than she felt. She felt exposed, vulnerable, and ready to be shredded to pieces.

But as Jack's eyes grew intense and his expression became somewhere between a mix of pain and pleasure, he knew that was exactly what he wanted.

And maybe...that's she wanted too.

"W...W-We did," she admitted bravely. "I-I mean, _I _did...and y-you did kiss me."

Soon, they were somehow moving in closer than they originally could.

Jack felt drawn to her. Her smell, her skin, her visible shivers. Tooth was so alluring, so breathtaking...but all his. Almost instantly, he felt himself start to lean over her - like Rome all over again, wanting to catch her eyes in the light, her lips in the dark.

The wind outside their window howled in the night sky.

"But...B-But why didn't you say anything?" he exhaled as his face darkened in the angled shadows and remembering to put on his shirt again was forgotten. His cheekbones were more prominent, his throat more exposed, and every heavy breath he tried to restrain made her want to move away in fear.

Toothiana shook her head a little.

"B-Because...you got _shot, _Jack!" and she tried to back away. "And you were _unconscious,_ a-and I was _stupid,_ and Edmund was there and we're always in danger, _always running_ and I–"

But his grip on her hand tightened and she stopped.

When she looked again, Jack's face was severe.

He pulled her hand to him before she could get away – like he always seemed to let her.

But not anymore.

And before she could finish licking her lips shakily, she started to walk back to him. He rubbed her knuckle as he stood face-to-face with him.

_"Tooth..."_

She blinked up at him, eyes glassy and a tiny, pathetic frown trying to split on her mouth.

"An...And you said we were friends. So I..."

And his frown deepened.

"You...You didn't want to jeopardise it? Is that what you're saying?"

"...Because I thought this would be over before it started."

And the ache in her voice, and the ache in her bones, was raw and heavy...but it was a complete reflection of his own.

_"But...what about now?"_ Jack mumbled and despite his control, he swallowed a lump in his throat.

His grip on her hand tightened.

Then he tilted his head down over hers until his bangs were almost dancing atop hers. Tooth tilted her head up slightly, hovering just below his face.

_"N-Now?"_

"Yeah. _Now..."_ he repeated but she shook her head a little.

"B-But...you don't have another–"

"I don't."

Their proximity and their Center genes made her skin electrify.

"S..._Same."_

And she fell silent – but she swore she could almost feel his racing heart as he spoke.

"We agreed we _suck_ as friends, as pathetic as that sounds but we...we know we're _something else. So..."_

Tooth looked up at Jack, eyes steady, and he felt that deep energy beat between them. It was stronger than ever, passing through her skin and into his chest, making his pupils dilate.

"What if I...W-What if I_ wanted_ to..." he murmured.

And when he slowly took a hold of her cheeks, Tooth's heart stopped.

"What would happen.._.if we tried again?"_

Her words were caught in her throat as his bright, sapphire eyes pierced into hers. He had _never_ looked at her that way before, so ready that she thought she'd set on fire from his intensity.

She couldn't breathe, couldn't speak.

But even though she felt all her rational thoughts caving...she squeezed his hand.

_"I_..._I don't know," _she whispered and a second later, the Hypunjam princess shut her jewel-colored irises, feeling her stomach flutter in anticipation.

And he shut his eyes, his heart threatening to kill him. He now knew she was important to him – no, she was so much more than that. So like an antidote to his pain...preparing, and moving in so close that Tooth could feel his breath on her face...

Jack leaned down...

...and he kissed her.

Catching the plush of her lips, Jack glided his mouth smoothly over hers until they started to move slow and affectionately. They were so nervous, so gentle, and tasting of mint toothpaste. Tooth's cheeks flushed under his touch and Jack's ears burned red. But they were so happy that when Jack's thumbs stroked her face softly, any bit of cold they felt vanished and their muscles relaxed instantly.

They thought they were the only people in the world, finally at a place of tenderness and feeling stronger together than they ever felt apart.

Neither wanted to pull away for air...

Three seconds later though–

Something electrocuted the both of them and they pulled away with a sharp intake of air.

What was _that?_

Tooth's eyes flew open with surprise and Jack peeked through his lashes, still wrapped up in the sensation, while they stared each other. His words floated through both their minds again.

_'What would happen...if we tried again?'_

She gulped, her full pink lips so inviting to him.

_"I-I don't know,"_ Tooth repeated softly.

But her eyelids were already starting to fall again with desire, and Jack's heartbeat started to accelerate.

Tooth's temperature was rising under her shirt and Jack ached for it beneath his cool skin.

_"Me neither," _he whispered.

And when he slowly tilted his head down again, Tooth closed her eyes and moved her hands up to grasp Jack's face. She then pulled him back to her in agony, and Jack didn't fight it, didn't want to.

Not anymore.

He shut his eyes, and when his mouth enveloped hers, their genes sent another shock shoot through them enough to shatter their cores.

Jack wrapped his hands around her tiny waist and pulled her to him. He closed any gap between them, hell-bent on showing that he was done with any leftover feelings, and wanting her to feel safe in his arms.

Instead, Toothiana felt tiny in his hold and shuddered under him. She could practically feel his power radiating from him, and over her, as she pushed his sleeves higher up his arms and it sent a flush deep into the pool of her stomach. Tooth arched her back, trying to get more of him and when the princess wrapped her arms around his neck and into his wet, brown-white hair, Jack moved his arm up her back until his hand gripped her neck.

He felt provoked, goosebumps crawling all across his skin, and raw energy dripping from the crown of his head to his feet. The GUARDIAN in him admonished it – but the man in him, the Jackson that _adored_ Toothiana immensely, wanted to consume it whole.

His fingertips made electricity course all the way down her body and she gasped into their kiss, pulling the air from his lungs. And when she did, Jack felt the fire in his heart blaze and the light inside her pull him further out of the dark, making him need her more.

He wanted her, _god, he wanted her. _

And she was more than he was prepared for.

He wanted to stay up late with her and talk about anything. He wanted to tease her and make inside jokes with her. He wanted to take her on motorcycle rides and have her hold him until she fell asleep. And he wanted to take her home and make her anything she wanted. He wanted Tooth...everywhere and anywhere with him.

And he wanted her to know it.

So with a heavy breath, he pulled away for a gasp of air.

Then he ravished her.

Tooth made a sound in the back of her throat and nearly fainted in the insatiable kiss, every worry melting away in the heat of the moment as her heart pounded. Jack molded their fronts closer than ever and when he pushed his hand into her damp hair, she sighed through her nostrils, feeling an energy shoot straight down to her bones that only he could create.

She then dragged one hand up from his hair down his ear, his neck, to rest on his chest.

Clutching his white fabric and dragging him closer, Jack couldn't help a slight groan in the back of his throat. Tooth would've blushed at the sound, knowing she was the one who'd made it, until both his hands suddenly slipped back down her sides.

Jack used the smoothness of her silk top to trace her curves until he reached her waist. It was his own personal secret, but he loved her hips. He hadn't much time to appreciate them until now and didn't think he ever would but now, he had all the time to enjoy the curvature of her body.

And he almost couldn't bear it.

Their kiss was powerful and made any control over his heart fly out the window. Jack had kissed other girls before, but he couldn't describe that, beyond the center gene running through both their veins and DNA, there was just something about Toothiana that made him crazy.

There was just never enough...and he loved it.

Dropping his hands lower, Jack gripped her pelvis. He then brushed his thumbs out to stroke the sides of her stomach, finding one of her sweet spots.

Tooth mewled in the back of her throat and she nudged him backward, using the short moment to catch her breath; to get her heartbeat under control. But it was near impossible, and she admitted to herself that she never wanted to feel anything other than what she felt now with him ever again.

When Jack caught himself against the edge of the bed, Tooth saw her chance to overthrow him.

Without hesitation, she gripped his shoulders firmly and jumped, wrapping her legs securely around his waist. Then linking her arms around his neck, she brought him closer to her, breaking through all the emotional barricades he might have had left, giving her access straight to his heart.

His breath quickened and his adrenaline rose when their skin touched and the spark washed over him.

It _was_ the gene, _it was._ Their genes made things burn brighter, made the room hotter, made every touch hypersensitive.

It was almost too much to handle.

Jack gripped her harder. He hastily lifted her forward, holding her head as he kissed her deeply, then threw his other arm out to knock everything off the table behind her, not giving a shit about all their bags, their things, and his weapons all falling and clattering to the floor.

Jack then dropped Tooth on its surface and pinned her against the wall behind it. When she pulled away, pulling a tiny smack from their lips, he rushed forward and pressed his forehead over hers, eyes still closed.

"Can't get away from me that easy, kitten," he said softly with a moist breath and slid down to kiss her cheek, her jaw, and her neck.

Tooth tipped her head back to give him more access and moaned lightly like her life depended on it. Every delicate touch set every single part of her body on edge, making all her muscles tighten slightly and leaving her body quivering.

"D..._Don'ca..."_ Tooth drew ragged breaths, her heart pounding with joy, and it only riled him up more.

She buried her fingers in his hair again as he started roaming his hands all over her body (trailing the fabric, tracing the buttons), and bringing them up and dragging them down over her thighs and under her knees. When both a fire and a cooling sensation flushed across her perspiring skin, Tooth pulled away slightly to take a breath.

"Call me kitten again," she threatened with a hot breath. Then she pushed herself away from the wall back to the edge of the table to wrap her legs around Jack more closely, clenching her thighs tighter against his hips. She then grabbed hold of his neck, digging her nails gently into the back of his head, pulling him down, so his face was only inches from hers.

"I _dare_ you," she whispered in a low, seductive tone and tilted his head slightly to slide her lips over his again.

She thought it would never end.

_He_ thought it would never end.

And then at the exact same time–

–they both gasped and pulled away from the kiss.

Because Jack's cold hand was somehow...inside her shirt, grabbing her waist.

And it sent his touch a powerful, electric jolt between them, making them wake up, frightened and hot.

Jack stood there, panting heavy and eyes wide with worry. Tooth sat there unmoving, lips swollen and eyes the exact same as the brunette. But their gazes were unreadable and their chests were heaving, Tooth's more noticeable than the twenty-four-year-old's.

How Jack managed to unbutton her top and slip his hand inside to hold her (and how Tooth hadn't realized it) terrified both of them. He hadn't unbuttoned all the way though – just enough for it to have slipped off Tooth's right shoulder, and expose her dark strapless bra to him, and the cold air he was circulating around him.

But it wasn't like Jack could jump away. Tooth had her legs around his waist and her arms possessively around his neck. She'd also arched her back under him and propped herself against the edge of the table as they were about to start something on a completely different level.

But they weren't...they weren't ready for _that._

They weren't even ready for whatever the hell had just happened!

_'W...What HAD just happened?!'  
'...W-What had JUST happened?!'_

Jack started to pull himself away. He dropped his hand from the back of her neck and stopped tangling his fingers in her hair. Then he made to step back.

Tooth unwrapped herself from around him slowly and let him back away, looking just as apologetic as he did. She had to stop herself from biting her lip though when she felt his hand slide back out of her shirt, leaving five icy trails across her bare midriff.

When they had at least foot between them, they tried to regulate their racing hearts. Jack tried to keep his eyes on her adoringly flushed face and away from her body. He felt incredibly stupid for what he just did - even if he _was_ falling for her, slowly longing for her since Italy, he _had no right_. She was a princess and they were in danger and this wasn't-

Tooth gasped quietly under her breath.

She stared at Jack's messy hair and twisted shirt exposing his torso – did _she_ do that? She remembered stroking hard muscle and something cold...but his entire body was chilled that it was hard to tell.

And his eyes were so shocked, confused, and as stunned as hers about how far their kiss went. Did that...Did that mean their level of attraction for each other went beyond what they were thinking too?

She HAD thought that their kiss would be experimental at the most, unsure if Jack even liked her that much to want to try anything major. But look at them! They looked like two crazed animals. Jack's hair was a storm, an incredibly sexy swirl of a mess, his chest heaving and his gaze heavy; and Tooth's only article of clothing was threatening to fall off, her chest was moist was sweat, and her face was raw with emotion.

Tooth didn't even want to imagine what her hair might've looked like too. And the things they'd said...wait, were they even talking or was it just her imagination?

Was it _his?_

First kisses were supposed to be sweet and memorable, not having to beg for more – that's what she and BT agreed, just to prove a point about romance: that it could be tender and magical like everything they taught their younger sisters.

But back then, she didn't know Jack...so she didn't know what he could do to her – or what she could to him.

And it worried her, because maybe they were too hot for each other, too quickly.

Would that mean they would burn out just as fast?

Her face softened as she started to calm her breathing. She couldn't think about it anymore...couldn't think about anything, really.

After a moment, slowly so as to not freak Jack out (as a spy, he was lethal - there was no way to know what he was like when he was just _scared_), Tooth lowered a leg to the ground and cautiously placed her foot on the carpet. As she did, her top started to slip more and Jack noticed the red spot that he left on her neck.

Her position didn't really do anything to ease Jack's mind. If anything, it made it worse, so thinking fast, he dropped his head and looked around the floor. All their stuff was littering the floor. He felt his ears burn red and when Tooth looked up after planting both feet firmly on the ground again, she realized he was also blushing.

'_Oh my god, I made him...H-He's...'_

A splash of heated skin appeared lightly on his cheeks and as she rebuttoned her top, Jack looked up at her nervously.

She looked down instantly and her mouth flew open–

"You don't have to apologize, Tooth," he mumbled.

Just as quickly, Tooth's head rose back up and her fearful gaze stayed on Jack's. But from the look of it, he wasn't mad or emotional...he was calm...almost forgiving.

And it was like a balm to her sudden aching heart which she took gratefully.

Because...what needed to be said?

_Nothing._ Absolutely _nothing..._The actions spoke enough for themselves.

And after as she finished buttoning each one up quickly, Tooth exhaled past her swollen lips and looked at him steadily.

"N...Neither do you," she mumbled gently. And Jack nodded nervously, running a hand through his messy hair.

They didn't say a word after and taking one last moment to stare at each other, Jack dropped his head again and Tooth looked sideways.

She immediately went to find her spy pants in her bag and decided they were better after all while Jack moved to the floor to recollect and reorganize all their things. They didn't look at each other as they went about their self-punishments.

But that didn't stop the light dust of pink from appearing on their heated faces and the tiny smiles that crept on both their mouths.

…

_6:37 p.m._

After that, it was nearly impossible for the two of them to look each other in the eye, afraid that the other might say or do something to ruin what_ hadn't_ yet been affected already – or worse, what _they_ themselves might do to the other.

And they didn't want to talk about it...at least not yet.

So Toothiana promptly announced that she was going to sleep and wrapped herself in the sheets, away from Jack so he wouldn't see her flaming cheeks still. If she was lucky, the bed wouldn't start to catch fire. And Jack agreed that he wanted to rest too – with no stolen laptops or anything. Although Aster _had _left him with a few new gadgets to use.

But he worried Tooth might think he'd be watching her while she slept if he stayed up like he did during their last hotel fiasco. So Jack decided to rest too, ditching his early suggestion to get more food, and shut off all their lights before collapsing into the armchair.

It was only 6 p.m. and it sounded absolutely pathetic, especially with it being Christmas, that the two of them would rather sleep. But they were on the run for _days_ and this was only time it seemed like the world had stopped spinning so much. There wasn't any immediate danger, Jack's memories had been restored, his sister was otherwise happy and safe, and they had an army to join tomorrow and storm out and reclaim Tooth's sisters. But for now, they could recharge and let the winter wonderland and head start on their clock be their Christmas gifts.

Tooth sighed into the pillow, her body trying to cave into slumber and nostalgic bliss. She would've fallen asleep at any given moment; even Jack thought she was asleep from her silence and unmoving form.

But she wasn't.

She was still awake, forcing herself to keep her eyes open in the dark. She gazed at the wall and the outline of the lights outside the window, and her body was slightly tense.

She listened to Jack, trying to prove a point. At first, there was nothing but dead silence and the assumption that he had already fallen asleep too. But then she heard him shuffle, moving his body around the armchair to get more comfortable.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

So Tooth waited until he stopped moving. When he did (after about a minute), she lay there and hesitated for a brief moment. Then she sighed softly.

Jack perked up instantly and turned his head to hers in the dark. Not a moment later, he watched the white from the bed sheets shift greatly and saw her sit up to look at him.

In what little light the room had, Jack saw her face, sweet and exhausted. She stared at him, sleepy and bleary-eyed before the corners of her lips turned upwards slightly.

Then she fanned an arm across the space of the bed next to her.

"_Come on, Jack,_" she whispered.

Jack eyed it with tired, blue eyes but soon after, he slowly uncurled his leg from the armchair and stood up. He then walked over to the opposite of the bed.

Tooth threw the sheets aside for him as he caught her eyes again. Jack smiled back gratefully and she returned it before she rolled to the other edge of the bed and turned on her side to face the wall.

She wasn't stupid. The only way this was going to work was if they left as much space between them as possible.

As she shut her eyes again and tried to relax her muscles again, the weight of the bed behind her sunk slightly and shifted. And she couldn't stop the big smile that came on her face, knowing who had caused it. She bit her lower lip to keep it from growing.

Jack threw the sheets over his lower half before he relaxed an arm behind his head and faced the other wall. He wasn't actually cold and didn't need the blanket to keep him warm, but he decided it was better than lying in top of it and having Tooth fight him for more of it if she rolled in her sleep.

The thought of her rolling in her sleep then made his heart race. But he swallowed it down and looked up at the ceiling, eyeing the grooves in the drywall.

And when he exhaled, he let his body muscles unwind and he shut his eyes.

_"Goodnight, Tooth."_

His voice was so deep in the darkness and an octave lower from fatigue that it sent shivers crawling up the same parts he'd touched her. Then Tooth shut her eyes and shifted her legs around more comfortably while Jack felt hypersensitive to every move she made on the other side of the bed.

Then she exhaled too and her body finally relaxed.

_"G'nite, Jack,"_ she breathed, her voice husky and raspy all in one. Then she fell asleep.

And Jack listened.

Almost immediately, he relaxed too but he didn't fall into a complete sleep - not unless he was unconscious. That's how he'd been trained to – so on some level he'd always be in control of his Center and aware of his surroundings. And with Tooth, the latter was more than realized.

But Jack loved it.

And with the entire journey, the entire day replaying through his mind, he fell into a light sleep. The word _guardian _kept drifting through his head.

Sleep then cascaded over both their bodies, lulling them from reality like dreamsand. It was beautiful and as the night darkened and Christmas died away, Jackson and Toothiana surrendered themselves to it, and subconsciously...to each other.

Tooth felt more protected by one person than she'd ever felt in her life and in a soft sigh, she rolled away from the cold edge of the bed and curled her arm above her on her pillow as she slept, facing the ceiling.

Jack was a dead weight to the earth, falling into his first dreamless slumber for days – but he rolled sideways acutely aware that he had something or someone to watch over on his left. Moving a hand up absentmindedly to hit the headboard, Jack touched her hand instead and his body instantly stopped.

In their rest, Toothiana grasped his hand, sighing again under her breath as their genes sent a tingle across her skin.

Jack's eyelids fluttered and he exhaled in his sleep.

But just as he was about to finish weaving their fingers together unconsciously, Tooth suddenly pulled away.

Tooth couldn't see it. Tooth couldn't understand it...but she felt as if her heart had just shattered into pieces.

A second later, her eyes flew open and she threw herself up from the bed, and destroying the last of the peace they had left...

...a heart-wrenching scream left her lips.

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "You Look So Fine" – Garbage **Okay not the best band name to choose for yourself lol, but the song is hot.**

**So there you have it, what we've all have been waiting for! :D Holy hell, this chapter's been staring me in the face for months O: but we made it and I'm so excited! BUT they haven't confessed their feelings directly yet so is there still a chance? Maybe, maybe not (; These two are my puppets, I swear haha. And this was the fluffiest chapter I've ever fluffed to fluff :p Oh my god I can't. Sorry it took long haha my beta told me not to cut out anything and I spazzed for days – but she was right, because every scene either plays or has played a vital role to the progress/explanation of the story. Note: Everything Tooth wished for Jack is all symbolic of feathers themselves and her drawing it on the forehead is my shoutout to the beautiful feather in the center of her actual plumage. (:**

**And now, thank you to the loveable sparklevampFTW for showing me this old Chris Pine movie called 'Blind Dating' that helped to me develop feels for this chapter (she's currently writing a hilarious RS AU called **_**Different Now**_**). **_**Second **_**thank yous to the wonderful Song Of A Free Heart for telling me about the fun of Balognyology and giving me her epic insight (and her mother's) into the world of hair dye and hair follicles lol (**_**she **_**wrote this beautiful RS AU called **_**For Better and For Worse **_**and for all you Jackunzel fans, check out her great fic **_**Among the Stars**_**). I'm not a Jackunzel shipper, but her story drives my heart into the ground and is worth it. :3 And**_** last**_** thank yous to my girl NewLightRiini for working with me on the steamy scene (: We had lots of laughs talking about public transit, sleep, and 'the nasty disease' oh lord (lmao so check out **_**her**_** amazing RS sci-fi AU called **_**Point of No Return**_**). As well, the two songs used in the dance were 'Come What May' from Moulin Rouge (for bloodstep and Tangled Up in Blue99) and 'Oblivion' by Bastille (for sass-master-jack-frost). And some of you guys wanted Star Trek and Friends references and for the love of me, I don't know why (: lol but there you go! Another will show up later. Until then, hang on!**


	36. Tooth's North Star

**Before we start, guys, thank you so much for your 1000+ reviews! My mouth is still making weird noises since it is a number I thought I'd never reach since I was twelve, and I don't know _what_ possesses you guys to share your thoughts with me haha. But for every reaction and size of a review you left along the way (gastronomically big and wonderfully small), I am amazed and very honored at the time you set aside to tell me. ****(:**** I'm happy that you're enjoying Project Guardian with me and for everything you guys ever share with me, I really, truly appreciate it :3 Btw, I loved your hilarious responses to the last chapter haha. And oh second, I've been told that SOPA (the _Stop Online Piracy Act_) bill is returning to try to shut down sites like this to prevent people from copyrighting issues. :p If you're interested, look more into it and be aware that there are petitions going up again to stop this taking of free speech from happening to other writers, artists, and designers. I signed against it before in the past and I'll do it again. You can ask Sol and G'syr for more info or to join. Fight the power! Lol okay, now back to this. Let the cliffhanger of doom begin.**

* * *

_I don't _have _some amazing gift._

_I don't...I..._

"_Chang, chang, chang, chang, chang…Nong hei kun chang rue plaow..."_

Tooth dreamt she was looking out a window down at all these houses.

Every tiny house looked like they sat on each other and when it boring to just stare, she started to hum sing some old Thai song to pass the time.

"_Chang mun tua toh mai bow..."_

That was when she realised she was eight years old again...but at least the air was warm and breezy and the stars were out. She could even still hear far down the hill, listening to people still saying goodnight to each other.

At least, it_ sounded _like it – they were all speaking in Spanish, and Tooth panicked because she realised that for the first time, she couldn't understand them.

But she kept on singing and her voice was still high.

**"Tina? Time to sleep!"**

Suddenly, Tooth's lips moved on their own. **"W-Wait, sir! I have to make a wish on that star for Phi (older sister)."**

And suddenly, big tears rolled down her cheek before she wiped it away.

**"M-Merry Christmas, Toothie..."**

Tooth felt like her heart was going to explode.

Then the dream changed.

"_Chang, chang, chang, chang, chang…Nong hei kun chang rue plaow..."_

Tooth felt herself grow smaller, feeling tinier than ever, feeling almost six. She was sitting on a rug on the floor, playing with a doll. Her voice was even higher, more innocent, and her words were still barely pronounceable.

"_Chang mun tua toh mai bow...Jamook yaow yaow, ria wa_**–**_"_ Just then, a sound made her turn her head.

Dropping the toy, Tooth felt herself get up and move to the window. Her eyes were all dried up from crying the night before but she was hungry for lunch and stayed silent while she waited.

Once she got to the window, Tooth stood on her tiptoes to poke her head over the windowsill and peeked up at the tree branch hanging across from her.

Out of nowhere, a giant long-tailed bat swung upside down on the branch.

She felt herself scream and run away.

"**Aaahhh**–_**AAAAHHHHH!"**_

Then out of nowhere, Tooth found herself on a medical table in a hospital room.

Or at least, she thought _she _was.

"**W-Wh-Where's Tooth?" **she heard herself say in a raspy voice.

When she blinked, she saw a bright light over her head.

"**H-Haaah...I-I don't know, ****Tiana****,"** she felt herself say in a higher voice. Eerily fast, the view suddenly changed and Tooth was staring at a only door across the room – she saw another girl's foot. **"Sh...She never came."**

"**M-Maybe..."** and her voice was deeper this time, sighing from exhaustion. When Tooth blinked, she was closer to the door and saw a chart with all her sisters' finished diagrams tacked to a wall. They were made up of her precious photographs. **"Maybe she's wi...wi'h the othe..."**

"**Ple-Please**_** stay**_** with us, Tia!" **Tooth gasped from the last bed close to the wall. She felt her head move defiantly and that's when Tooth realised – it wasn't actually _her_ who was dreaming...

She was–

"**Tat?" **And Tooth was back in the first head seeing through the first girl's blurry eyes, trying desperately to see what she was seeing. **"Ar-Are yo..."**

"**No, No Ti, I'm...Tiana!" **the girl quickly barked and when Tooth blinked, she was looking through the third girl's eyes again.

There were only three girls in the room, she realised... and they all sounded like–

"**You **_**have **_**to stay awake, o-okay?"**

She heard Tiana sob from the other side of the room.

"**Bu-But I'm so...I-I'm so **_**tired**_**..."**

"**No, sweet, hang on!" **the second girl, Tia, said. **"Listen to BT! You have to!"**

"**B-But...But **_**why?"**_

"**Otherwise they'll take you while you–"**

Immediately, the door opened and Tooth was back looking through Tia's eyes.

Four people in lab coats were wheeling in two beds, with two other little girls. The first one was groaning with a gash on her head. Tooth read the name on her bed as she passed Tia's line of vision.

"**Theena!?" **she heard herself gasp...or no, it was Tia's gasp.** "Y-You're here too? But we th..."**

With a broken heart though, Theena was unconscious and didn't say a word. The scientists kept pushing her to the other end of the room.

Then, the next bed with the second girl came into view.

But the minute her face caught under the lights, all three girls screamed and cried at once.

"**T-T...TU–"  
_"TOOLS!"_  
"T-Tulia , wh-what did they do?...WHAT DID THEY DO?!"**

"**Hush them **_**up!**_** Or Pitch will–"**

Yet the damage was already done...Tooth had seen Tulia's face.

The youngest of the four girls, Tulia's arm was white and her face was purpling and weird growths were sprouting at the crown of her head.

**"T-Tu..._Tuli_…"**

Suddenly, a loud explosion somewhere far away made the entire room shake a little.

A scream wretched itself from Tia's lips and Tooth saw everything grew blurry.

Then Pitch's voice echoed through the open door...faint, hellish, but positively maniacal.

**"**_**...Hahaha!..."**_ his deep, English reverberated and almost immediately, what sounded like a large group of men miles away started screaming in pain.

**"**_**...don't fight the fear, little man!"**_

...

"_NOO!"_

Jack woke up as Tooth shouted awake from her nightmare, throwing her head up in night sweats.

He sat up instantly beside her and with a dark look, he gazed around the room – but there was no one there. It was still dark and the wind continued to howl outside.

But he heard light gasping beside him.

Dropping his murderous face, he looked wide-eyed at Toothiana in fear.

"_Tooth?"_ he whispered urgently.

She didn't move, her shoulders were slightly hunched in waking terror and her hands clutched the bedsheets.

Jack didn't like it and called out to her in the dark again.

"_Tooth...Toothiana._"

He leaned out in front of her to catch her face. By the light of the window, his blue eyes saw the light dance across her expression. She stared ahead, mouth slightly open like she was seeing something else.

Jack narrowed his eyes slightly, wondering if she was still asleep – but then her head started to turn all around the room. He heard her frantic heartbeat and her mouth mumble incoherently.

"Where'd they…No, no, no, _no!_ But I–"

Jack rushed forward and gently grabbed her shoulders.

"_Tooth!"_

And when she turned to look at something behind him, hearing his voice, he paused.

His eyebrows shot up on his forehead at the sight of her eyes. He pushed her hair out of her face and cupped her cheek.

"Tooth, what's...What's wrong?!"

He could've sworn – no, he'd seen it.

_He'd seen it..._her pink eyes...a light reflected on them, running over her irises, then vanishing just as quickly.

Jack was stunned.

Was the light from the window? But she was facing _away_ from it, looking behind him into the dark. So how could they reflect a flicker of light on their own?

A moment later though, it was over.

Tooth blinked and felt as if she'd been tossed back into her own body. She turned her head away from Jack slowly – but by then her hands were shaking and her eyes were wide with fear.

Jack didn't say anything, his hands frozen on her face and shoulder.

He merely let the silence weigh out until she was ready to speak, until she could explain it to herself. He could tell by her expression that this had never happened to her before either.

He let his right hand drop from her as she fell quiet.

But when she looked at the end of the bed and brought her gaze up ahead of her, her face was severe.

"I knew it..." she whispered to herself with a deep-set frown. "I...I think I..."

Jack frowned, controlling his patience. "Knew _what,_ Tooth?"

And she tossed her eyes at him before she looked forward again.

"I... I finally discovered the ability I got from the Center Gene," she answered and pushed a hand into her hair. "I..._I-I...I can see what my sisters are seeing."_

Jack's forehead creased. "You can...see what they're seeing?"

Tooth nodded slowly.

"And you know the scariest part is...I-I think I always have."

Jack shut his mouth as he watched her move her shaky hands to clasp together in her lap. She exhaled.

"I thought it was just intuition," she explained softly as she kept looking forward. "O-Or a coincidence that maybe I knew or could imagine what they were always up to, what they were saying, since we were all so close...but what I just saw..."

Tooth's grip tightened on herself. She glared back at the bed and shook her head.

"What I just _saw..._I would've _never_…It was too real...It was _cruel."_

Jack pushed himself into a more sturdy position beside her before he leaned down to look at Tooth again. His gaze was serious, almost as serious as hers.

"What did you see?" he asked deeply.

Toothiana exhaled and pushed her hair behind her ear.

"I dreamt...no, I _saw_, the four that were already kidnapped. I-In a holding room."

Jack's eyes grew wide.

Tooth continued to quiver and tighten her fists until it turned white.

"A-And there were beds!" she gasped. "And m-my photographs pinned up to show the d...but they were all talking and I kept..."

She rubbed her eyes.

"I-I kept blinking and jumping between each of...I was Tiana, th-then _Tat_, then Tia and there was a–"

When she stopped abruptly, Jack leaned down further to catch her face again, even hoping that her eyes would shine again.

"Tooth, what?"

She shook her head a little and gazed up at him. She gulped soundly.

"Pitch has them, Jack," she whispered shakily. _"Six _of them. Even Theena and I only..."

Jack's eyes grew wide as she rubbed her eye again. That's when he realised she wasn't rubbing it because she was tired...she was trying to stop her tears from showing.

Tooth gritted her teeth bitterly and looked down between them.

"He's already captured more than _half _of them!" she bit out soft but angry. "And that's not the worst of it. I..."

She hiccuped.

"I think they...I think they already started experimenting on...because Tulia, she–"

"Hey, hey!" Jack moved his hand down from her shoulder to grab her hand. "Look at me."

Tooth instantly stopped and threw her gaze up at him.

When she did, Jack saw her pink irises (trapped in her puffy red eyes) reflect a quick light again and heard her breath shudder.

**"What's g...na happen to Toothie?" **she heard Tiana gasp and saw through BT's eyes that the scientists were moving in to check on her.

**"Shh...Ti...don...don't talk just..."** Tatiana whispered ever so gently, but Tooth saw her vision sting with tears and the scientists grew blurry.

When Toothiana pulled her mind away urgently, Jack's face came back. She kept her gaze frozen on his angular, darkened features, trying not to get pulled away again.

"_Do you see me?"_ he asked again and Tooth nodded with a determined gasp for air.

"Y-Yeah, I..._I see you,"_ she exhaled and shut her eyes. Jack squeezed her hand.

"Can you see through all five of their eyes?"

"Everyone's except Theena's," she informed. "B-But I think it was because she was unconscious when they rolled her in...M-My sisters are in trouble, Jack!"

"I know, Tooth," he said softly and he pulled her head up.

"But look, you found your gift...the gift that's gonna save them."

Tooth pulled her eyes back up to his.

"You're telepathically linked to all of them, aren't you?" he finally stated and when they locked gazes, she nodded determinedly.

"It's gotta be a result of you being born with the Gene, and the company cloning you."

"And it explains why I've seen weird flashes of them all the time," she finished, before she suddenly blinked.

That's when she realised something.

Looking back on all the weird visions she had since her kidnapping, it made sense and she didn't have to call it a coincidence anymore.

Nothing was coincidence for Tooth anymore.

When she was tied up in Pitch's warehouse, she had her first vision of one sister being placed on a cool, metal table and screaming – it had been Tatiana. She _was_ kidnapped the same night Tooth was and they must've been sedating her in the other part of the warehouse while Tooth was bound to a pole. The tooth box that Jack lost in Belarus was no doubt BT's, and when they found out she'd be with Tooth at the Bangkok development gala, that's when they decided to kidnap the handmaiden – Tooth had just been a consolation prize until later.

Next, was the nightmare she had the night she and Jack were hiding in the hotel. She dreamt she was Theena, and that she and the sisters were separating under the Hypunjam palace tunnels with their corresponding ELF guards – but they really _had _been separating and she _was_ seeing it happen.

Then, she remembered the nightmare she had on the plane as she and Jack left Vietnam for Russia. She dreamt of another sister getting kidnapped in Ecuador with a Nightmare throwing a bag over her head – and it really _had_ been Tulia.

Tooth's heart pounded with fear.

Not to forget, she imagined Tiana getting pushed into that black van after the grenade ambush at the Wales penthouse...and Tia tripping as she and her ELF ran under a tunnel in Turkey after she slept on the plane for Buffalo.

It had all really happened...even poor Theena who _thought_ she'd been safe hiding in South Africa with her ELF – only to find him dead by the creek two hours later.

She covered her eyes with the back of her hand.

"I-I _do_ have a gift...I _do_ have a mental link with them," Tooth mumbled. "And I never really..."

When she looked up at Jack, she found his face was unreadable. She frowned to herself.

"But why didn't the company founder mention it?" she murmured and Jack's focus was back on her.

She shook her head.

"Why didn't he...W-Why didn't he say anything? Why didn't my nanny?" she bit her lip. "If Mr. Sanderson knew, and was sharing all this information with the company for years...And why didn't North even mention it?"

"I don't think he knew," Jack said. "I don't think _anyone_ knew...unless you mentioned it."

Tooth looked up at him.

"I didn't...Not until now."

And Jack nodded slowly.

"So that means you're the only one who knows it exists."

"And you..." Tooth looked at him for a long moment just trying to let it all sink in.

The Center Gene _had_ blessed her with a gift – one that kept her as close to her sisters as she still could. No one, not even the closest people around them, knew it. And this was a card in their favour, against the company's supposed intelligence into everything and Pitch's war.

Jack gripped her hand.

"And what about your sisters?" he asked as she looked down thoughtfully. "Do they sense you? Can they hear you if...if you called out?"

Tooth bit her lip.

"No, I don't think so," she answered and shut her eyes. "Otherwise they would've said something a long time ago."

Jack watched as she briefly paused for a minute.

Tooth tried to scream a _Can you hear me?! _in her head. When nothing happened however, she opened her jeweled orbs again and frowned up him.

Jack mirrored her expression when she shook her head and sighed under her breath.

"But i-it's okay, I guess..." she mumbled back to Jack. "I don't know what I'd do if I found out I'm the one who caused them more trouble. I'd rather protect them without them knowing it."

And that was very reminiscent of Jack's oath to Emma.

Jack looked around the room with a calculative glare.

"Well then," he whispered, and then smirked lightly at her under the blanket of darkness. "Let's use it our advantage."

Tooth blinked for a second but after he gave a quick nod, she nodded back.

"They have five sisters," he continued as she let go of his hand and sat facing forward again. "But there's still three out there."

"But the Nightmare that chased us earlier grabbed the sixth tooth box so we–"

"What?!"

She jumped a mile in the air.

"_Jack! Shh!"_

"No, what're you–"

"Will you _relax?!_" she huffed as she put herself into a comfortable cross-legged position.

Jack's eyebrows knitted together.

"_What Nightmare?!"_ he hissed.

When Tooth looked at him like he was crazy, she stopped instantly. She frowned as Aster's car chase came back to the forefront of her mind and nearly killed them all. She bit her lip.

"It's _okay_, Jack," she mumbled. "You were suffering from the bleeding effect, you didn't–"

"There was a _car chase_ and I didn't know?!" he whispered urgently. "You mean, we could've–"

"Jack, calm _down!"_ Tooth snapped. "Edmund got us out! He _was_ a GUARDIAN for a reason too, remember?"

And after thinking about how bunny brain could've even pulled it off, he realised Tooth was right. Jack ran a hand through his hair.

"Okay," he sighed. "Okay fine, _sorry._ I believe you."

She patted his shoulder.

"Besides," she added. "You weren't _completely _useless."

And when she threw a tiny smile, Jack stopped beating himself up about his mental poisoning that could've cost them their lives. He blinked for a second then nodded, a tiny smile creeping on his lips too.

Tooth wouldn't have added _that_ unless he'd done something to amaze and freak her out as usual.

When she saw the color return to his face (or as little as there could be), she went back to their earlier urgency.

Her hands were still fumbling in her lap.

"The Nightmare took Tuhina's case," she exhaled shakily. "So I'm gonna...I-I'm gonna try to find where she is, and make sure she's alright. If she's close by...maybe we can beat the Nightmares to her and her ELF...m-maybe try to rescue her?"

Jack nodded and sat silently beside her. He didn't say anything but her words brought back their failed attempt at trying to rescue Tiana the night before when she was in England. But it was worth a shot – and at this point, he'd do anything for Toothiana and would shove any stick up Pitch's ass just to make him mad.

After Tooth settled into the sheets, she sighed nervously and pushed her hair behind both her ears. Her golden yellow streak glinted in the window's light. Jack's forehead creased worriedly when she shot him a nervous look.

"How do you do it?" she asked, talking about the gene. "How do you make it work when you want it to? Because it's only worked for me when I sleep or when I vaguely imagine a sister at one time."

Jack bit the inside of his cheek and looked down at his right hand. He flexed his fingers thoughtfully before he looked at her.

"You want me to help?"

Tooth nodded and he blinked before he started to move in the bed again.

"Okay," he started and threw a glance. "Face me so I can see."

The two of them then kneeled on the bed facing one another. For a moment, Tooth felt cold being away from the warm bedsheet and feeling the winter chill pass through her clothes. But when Jack's warm gaze bore supportively into hers, she pushed the thought away.

When they both finished shifting around and both comfortable, Jack frowned a little, unsure of how to start explaining something that was instinctual, second nature to him for so long.

When she looked up, he lifted his hands to touch her face.

A second later though, his hand froze because when his fingertips were almost an inch coming into contact with her skin...Tooth pulled away a little.

He looked down at her anxiously.

"Sorry," she apologized with a faint blush. "I-It's just that every time we touch...it's like...uhm..."

She lifted her hands and made a shooting gesture with her fingers and weird noises under her breath – but he got it.

Tooth rolled her lips inward and gave a shy expression.

"R...right," Jack faltered for a moment on his words and looked sideways. "Wouldn't...uh, wouldn't want that."

That's when Tooth noticed his ears turn pink in the light of the window.

Despite herself, she felt her heart race.

"This might be harder to explain then verbally," Jack kept muttering to himself and tried to avoid suddenly how close he realised they were again. "But I can manage...I always do, right?"

But when he looked down, Tooth closed her eyes and shook her head a little with a slight smile.

She quickly reached up and grabbed his hands, bringing them down to her face. When his hands were pressed to her skin and that tingle fluttered between them, she exhaled nervously.

"I-It's okay," Tooth mumbled. "We'll get used to it."

Jack did nothing for a long moment...but after a few more seconds, he relaxed and pressed his palms firm against her cheeks.

"Maybe."

Tooth leaned slightly into his cool touch and held one hand over his as the other clutched the sheets.

"Okay, teacher," she encouraged and looked up at him steady before bringing her head down again. "What do I...W-What do I do?"

Jack nodded, then he started with a serious gaze and a serious tone.

"Relax your mind," he said calm and deeply. "And just wait for something to brush your senses."

Tooth nodded slowly, letting Jack's deep voice float through her ears in the dark.

"When you feel that tingle across your skin, that sensation...that's the gene, alive and awake in your bones."

Tooth exhaled softly and let her grip on the bed sheet loosen.

"Then just find what you want with it, in your head, and reach out to it. Reach out to its energy."

Jack's fingers flexed gently over her cheek and Tooth suddenly felt something cold slither around her skin.

"You feel anything?" Jack asked and she nodded.

"Yeah," she frowned.

He scowled. "Sorry...all I can do is make you cold."

"Jack, I would've complained a long time ago if I didn't...wait, that didn't come out right!"

Jack lifted a teasing eyebrow even though she couldn't see it.

He felt her skin warm suddenly under his palms...and he liked it.

"Right...well, it's supposed to feel cold. For me, anyway. It's what I feel when I activate my gene, but I can't really so...thanks for mentioning."

Then he grabbed a weak current of cold air floating through the room and made the breeze expand, and Tooth felt that familiar cold, electrical chill move through her rather than around. She inhaled sharply, eyes still shut tight. She imagined it to be what it would feel like if it was snowing in the room.

_"Wow..._" she whispered and Jack nodded.

"_That_ is my Center," he said. "...but what is _yours?"_

She shrugged with a frown.

"I don't know…"

"Just try, Tooth...Find that flare."

But it was sorta hard when all she could think about was _his_ energy coursing through her, not her own.

On the bright side though (as Tooth grasped both his hands firmly), that awkward, violent jolt she always felt when she and Jack accidentally touched was going away. It was like her body was growing used to their center genes always sparking each other so that it started to become more of a tingle.

She sighed tiredly and Jack's eyebrows furrowed together.

"I'm...I'm gonna picture them," she stated softly.

"Alright," he mumbled. "Don't worry I'm right here."

Then she nodded and started to imagine her sisters, one by one.

She picked up on Tatiana's mind and moved onto another sister. When it was Tulia, weak and in pain, she bit her lip and tried her hardest not to stay and give her invisible comfort. She then felt Tia and suddenly–

Jack watched Tooth's eyelids fly open.

He stopped flexing his fingers.

"You still feel me, Tooth?" Jack asked. Her mouth fell a little open slightly as her irises moved around the room widely.

"Yeah...I know you're still here...a-and I see her," Tooth mumbled to Jack.

He decided to let go of her face gently, and then he saw it...that subtle reflection of light dance across her eyes, before it flickered away.

It was her gene, lighting up and shining inside her, awakened for the first time and many more times to come.

He'd never seen something so brilliant.

It was just another thing to cherish about Tooth, but he bottled it up for the moment and kept his supportive gaze on her.

"That's great, Tooth!" he encouraged as he pushed her hair for her behind her ear again. "What else?"

"She's uh...She's–"

Tooth saw through Tuhina's eyes and felt her little sister blink rapidly. Tooth stared into a floor length (slightly dirty )mirror and stood. It was in front of her and through Tuhina's turquoise eyes, she watched her ten-year-old little handmaiden braid her one of her own messy pigtails.

Tooth smiled breathlessly.

"Sh-She's okay!" she reassured Jack and continued to stare. "So far, she's okay..._she's okay_..."

Tooth blinked and watched the mirror disappear as Tuhina turned her head and walked around the tiny bedroom. Through her eyes, Tooth saw a bed and her sister's tiny feet float around before she went to lift various things.

"I-I see a...a bed," Tooth tilted her head and kept blinking into the dark. "And she's picking up a pencil...It's pink."

Tooth pursed her lips sadly.

Tuhina always liked to draw. She was the most artsy of the eight girls. It made her miss her more.

When Tooth blinked again, she watched Tuhina's tiny hand reach out of view to grab what sounded like paper. And when it came into view, her heart nearly wept.

On the paper was a crudely drawn picture of all eight identical girls with different hairstyles – and Tooth was in the center, bigger than the rest with a red heart on her dress and a big smile. As her eyes grew watery, she watched the image get carried to table before Tuhina tried to climb herself onto a chair.

"She's...She's drawing a picture..." Tooth mumbled and Jack knew that whatever she was seeing was probably worse than reliving memory because it was happening in real-time.

But there was a smile on her face, so it made the little disheveled part of him smile slightly too.

"Of what?" he asked gently. "Who?"

Tooth watched hands suddenly appear under Tuhina's gaze and the pink pencil move hard at work to finish coloring in her eyes.

"_Me..." _she chuckled sadly. "A-And the others."

When Tuhina finished a few seconds later, she turned her head to look out the window.

Tooth's eyes suddenly grew wide.

"She just looked out the window," she stated and Jack was back on par.

"What does she see?"

Tooth's lips moved instantly.

"Sunrise," she told him. "A-And there's a clock beside the bed...5:41 a.m."

Jack immediately went into spy mode and calculated the time differences in his head. His eyebrows furrowed together.

"That's seven hours ahead of us," he mumbled, blue eyes flitting downwards acutely. "Sunrise at five...That's gotta be in Europe. Baltic region, maybe."

He immediately shot his eyes up again at Tooth.

"She's in Europe, Tooth. Do you see any landmarks?" he asked quickly. "Words? A flag? What does she hear?"

Tooth shook her head, pink eyes giving off their continuous sheen.

"Not from what I can see. She's alone," the princess stated and Tooth watched as the window moved away as Tuhina looked back down to her drawing. "I don't hear any voices and no one's come yet."

Suddenly, Tooth watched as Tuhina's hand dropped the pink pencil and moved her hands across the table.

"Wait, hang on," Tooth rose a hand like she was going to grab something too. Jack paused and waited.

"She's grabbing something on the table."

Tooth watched Tuhina then lift a couple papers away and pulled out a what looked like a postcard. Her eyes grew wide.

"Sh-She's got a postcard!" she gasped almost excitedly and even Jack leaned in close to Tooth, urgent and ready.

Tooth tilted her head down as Tuhina did the same. Tiny hands rubbed the picture on the front before she flipped it over and started _'Dear Toothie' _writing on the lines with the pink pencil.

Tooth wretched her gaze from reading the handmaiden's words and looked all around the postcard for clues.

"There's a flag, Jack," she said. "Three horizontal stripes, blue, black, and white."

The brunette furrowed his eyebrows. He knew that flag but for the life of him, he couldn't remember it at the moment.

"Uh, I..."

"No, wait!"

Jack stopped when Tooth blinked again and rose her hands. Tuhina moved her hands away as she was finished writing and in the corner of the postcard she read–

"_With love from Tallinn_, Tuhina," she mumbled and Jack's eyes grew wide.

"Tallinn..." he repeated. "Capital city of..._Estonia_. She's in Estonia, Tooth."

How Jack knew that, Tooth would never know (a spy thing, most likely) but she smiled and continued to watch through Tuhina's eyes as she put the postcard away and folded the picture on top of it.

But suddenly–

_Slam!_

When Tuhina turned her head, Tooth watched a frantic looking ELF bust into the room.

He looked tired but otherwise relieved under his hood.

Tuhina's hand waved at him.

"**Ready to go, **_**kleintjie (little one)**__**?**_**"** the ELF said in his strong accent and Toothiana watched the room bop up and down as Tuhina nodded.

"**Will we be safer in the church?"** Tuhina asked and Tooth blinked as the ELF nodded.

"**Yes," **he said and held out a hand for her and her things. Tuhina clambered off the chair with the drawing and her postcard. As she grabbed her coat, the ELF started speaking again.

"**Remember where?"** he asked and she nodded proudly and recited the address.

"**Maces Bay, New Brunswick! Maces Bay, New Brunswick!"**

**"And the time?"**

**"Tomorrow at lunch!"**

The ELF then smiled with a brilliant set of white teeth against his dark chocolate skin before he put a finger to his lips.

"**But remember, do not tell the people downstairs! It is a secret,"** he said quickly. **"Your other sisters are compromised and so are you."**

"**Compromised?"** Tuhina repeated then she blinked with a frown.** "Oh, you mean **_**in danger!"**_

And the ELF nodded. **"So the church will protect you! But no one can know, ****kleintjie****, okay?"**

And Tuhina nodded bravely. **"You're a much nicer ELF than the other one,"** she smiled and he smiled again before he took her hand and led her out to the door.

"**Let us go!" **he whispered urgently.** "We have a plane to catch–"**

Tooth was then smacked back into her own body again and gasped.

When she threw her head back a little, trying to soak it all in, Jack put a hand on her back to steady her.

"Th...Thanks," she heaved and looked back at him. "And they're on the move."

Jack blinked and narrowed his eyes, interest piquing.

"What do you mean?"

"The ELF knew about her stolen tooth box and that her location's been compromised," Tooth explained and put her head into her hands gratefully. "Thank god...so he came in and told Tuhina they were leaving for New Brunswick to hide her in a new secret location."

Jack's face softened slightly.

"Aster must've told North and called ahead," he guessed and Tooth nodded. When he looked down again, his face was still urgent but a little more hopeful.

"Did they say_ where_ in New Brunswick?"

"Y-Yeah," she answered. "Tuhina said 'Maces Bay'...They're hiding in a church. And they need to be there tomorrow by lunch so I'm guessing that's twelve on the dot."

After a moment of looking at each other, Jack's jaw clenched tightly and he looked down sternly at her.

"If they're heading to New Brunswick that means they'll be up in Canada."

And when his words left his lips, Tooth tightened her hold on the bed again.

"Then I say we ditch the original plan to meet North and get her first," Tooth said and for once, Jack agreed.

"What about the other two?" Jack asked and Tooth remembered her fleeting memories.

She shook her head.

"Tiati was in New Zealand, I think," she said and rubbed her head. "In my dream, I saw the flag on a poster in her room...And from the sound of where Tina was, everyone was speaking Spanish..."

But when she tried to peek through Tina's eyes again, the eight-year-old was fast asleep so she couldn't see or hear anything. She didn't know that Tina was being sheltered in El Salvador.

"The ELFs probably haven't told them or know where to move them yet, but for now they're still safe," Tooth reassured Jack. "Hopefully they'll meet each other at a new rendezvous too if things go wrong."

'_And I hope they DON'T,' _she told herself.

So like a crack of lightning, Jack pulled himself up from the bed and started to grab his things.

"I can find us the fastest plane to New Brunswick if we leave now," he said, and Tooth was grateful for the edge in his tone because it meant he was returning to his sexy spy role again.

She pulled the sheets off her body and jumped out of the bed too.

"Thanks, Jack," she huffed and started to move around the hotel room to grab whatever needed to be shoved into her bag.

As Tooth crossed him at the familiar table where their kiss had gotten a little too hot to handle, she blushed – unaware that Jack was blushing too in the dark.

Jack didn't try to say anything as he pulled out the black turtleneck she threw in the laundry for him, but then Tooth appeared out of nowhere.

When he paused, she leaned up tentatively and she kissed his jaw (because that was as far as she could reach).

"Suit up, Spy Boy," she piped and floated away before he could look at her blushing face.

And Jack smirked back before he reached for a change of clothes again, heart racing.

...

_Hotel parking lot, 10:49 p.m._

Christmas was over and the holiday feelings were done, but while everyone was sleeping off their winter joy, the ex-GUARDIAN and the princess-in-hiding had to leave it all behind and start their race again.

They grabbed everything they brought with them and Jack wiped away and destroyed any evidence that they'd been there. After he checked out, he used a egg scrambler Aster had given him to crash the hotel's electronic booking system and when it rebooted, every guest in the last twenty four hours who'd registered was gone from the database.

By the time, they were at the Shadow again, Toothiana's heart was fired up and Jack's fingers were flexing madly in the frigid winds. It blew his hair up and he was glad he gave Tooth his hoodie under her coat to cover her head as they crossed the parking lot.

Once Tooth tightened his backpack on her back and her bag on her shoulder, she and Jack looked out worriedly onto the dark roads ahead of them.

"How f-far is the North Philadelphia Airport?" she asked through chattering teeth as they held their helmets. Her purple scarf nearly hid her mouth.

Jack ran his gloved hand through his hair and zipped his brown leather jacket higher to his throat.

"I checked. It's not that far, but I'm gonna go slow to avoid any black ice, okay?" he said as he prepared to throw his leg over the bike.

"Th-That's okay!" she mumbled, already freezing.

Jack stopped.

Without warning, he abruptly turned back to Tooth and gently held each side of her face.

He then dropped his forehead over hers to block out the icy snow blowing into her face.

"Are you gonna be okay?" he asked worriedly.

Tooth's cheeks bloomed red, but she nodded firmly under his hood and grasped each of his hands. Touching her was his favourite thing to do now and having her close made his world. It made his spirit feel infinite and his insides curl pleasantly, and he was thankful for every second.

"I-I should be asking _you_ that," she murmured back but Jack exhaled softly. "How's your wound?"

"The biotic's working so don't worry," he replied. "I'll be okay...once we get to your sister."

Toothiana shut her eyes and leaned into his forehead more.

"Don't get cold."

He smirked down at her.

"I never am."

She chuckled weakly as Jack exhaled.

"...You ready?"

And when Tooth hummed in agreement, they both opened their eyes.

After a moment, he let go and mounted the bike. Tooth immediately jumped on behind him.

"Be careful," she called over the wind before she put on her helmet, and Jack nodded before putting on his own.

When he started the bike and let it burn heat for a few seconds, Tooth wrapped her arms around him and pressed herself tightly into his back.

And Jack placed his hand over hers.

...

_Thirty minutes later, North Philadelphia Airport, 11:22 p.m._

By the light of the orange streets, white snow, and pale moonlight, Jack and Tooth got to the city's airport in safe and sound.

Yet even though they got there in a disheveled manner, with Tooth practically stuck to Jack's back and her head over his shoulder and her frostbitten fingers inside his pockets, the staff on site were not their biggest supporters.

It turned out that, according to the workers, the Sussex Aerodrome (New Brunswick's airport) was shut down for the day because a terrible blizzard was passing through most of the Canadian province, which meant no planes could fly in or out, so Jack and Tooth were stumped.

They worried for a while what would happen if they couldn't fly in soon and get to the church. Just because the ELF was moving her, didn't mean that the Nightmares wouldn't know – they could be tagged and the best course of action, the two realised, was to just beat both parties there and hope for the best.

But with the snowstorm cancelling all the flights, they didn't know how long they would take to actually _reach_ Maces Bay.

Until Jack, being as resourceful as he always was (and nomadic as he'd always been), decided to use his charm and risked calling out for a favour.

A half-hour later, after the Shadow 750 was wiped clean and ditched in an outside parking lot, he and Tooth were pressed beside a humbly, quiet trucker who was making a delivery up to Sussex, New Brunswick with his eighteen-wheeler.

Jack convinced him that they needed to risk this hitchhike for the sake of a family member (which was partially true) and the man opted to let them join him. He never trusted anyone, hearing all those scary stories about hitchhikers who pretended to need help then running off with your money...but the brunette sounded desperate, and the girl he was bringing with him was sweet and tiny. So he decided that whatever crazy love mess they'd gotten themselves into was worth the chance – and hey, it _was _Christmas.

So for rest of the day, the two joined the nice trucker and sped hastily north to the Canadian border; with Tooth, hugging their bags and sleeping on Jack's shoulder next to the passenger door, while Jack sat in the middle (refusing to put Toothiana in the middle, in case the guy tried anything) and put his arm around her shoulders as she slept.

The church was her only beacon right now.

...

_Twelve hours later, Boxing Day_

_Maces Bay, New Brunswick, Canada, 11:29 a.m._

"There you go, you two," the driver said as he stopped in the middle of Maces Bay en route to Sussex another hour away. "I hope you find what you're looking for."

"Thank you so much!" Tooth huffed after wishing him a Merry Christmas, then she hopped out of the giant truck and into the thick Maritime snow. The snowstorm had long past in the early hours of the day and while the two were a little anxious that they couldn't make it any sooner, it was still better than nothing.

"You're welcome, _petite dame! (little lady!)_" the trucker smiled and laughed a little when he and Jack heard her yelp as the snow almost swallowed her whole.

Jack immediately moved out to help her before the driver stopped him.

"And son?" he called as Jack turned his head over his shoulder. The man was actually good company the whole ride – he didn't say much but the conversations he and jack had while Tooth slept under his arm were pleasant.

Jack watched as the driver's rugged smile appeared on his face.

_(French)_ "You take care of that woman, you hear me?" he said pointing out of the truck to where Tooth was cursing in English and Thai to herself.

When Jack heard, he rolled his eyes and threw the man a warm smile.

"_Oui, monsieur,"_ Jack replied and moved again out of the car. _"And wish your wife and son __'Bonne Année' (Happy New Year)__ for me."_

"I will, _et __Joyeux Noël __à__ vous! (and Merry Christmas to you both!)__"_

Then Jack effortlessly jumped the high height from the truck to the ground. He gave Tooth a smirk when she gawked at how easy he'd done that before she crossed her arms.

"_Show off,"_ she muttered.

Then the two waved goodbye to the trucker as he started rolling his massive vehicle away. After this last delivery, then he could spend the last of the winter holidays with his family in Montreal – and Jack and Tooth were happy for him.

Once they were alone, Jack and Tooth held hands for warmth and quickly started searching for a service stop or something of the sorts that was open. Since it was Boxing Day, the businesses were open again and many people would be out to answer their questions.

But they didn't have to travel far to the find the only church capable of hiding an ELF and a clone. After gathering what little information they needed to know, they walked a long dirt road to the coast of the Bay.

The coast was huge and high and when they reach the very end, the cliff over the edge went down straight into the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean. It was beautiful as they heard it splash against the coastal wall and smelled the sea air float through the winter winds.

Jack's fingers flexed greatly and he gulped in a deep breath of the cold air. He'd been to Canada for a couple missions before during the winter seasons and he loved that the north wind was at his complete command when he did.

He felt so confident now and was almost itching to show Toothiana what he could do at his full potential.

But it wasn't the time, not when they had some people to beat.

Tooth suddenly lifted their joined hands and pointed at a building in the near distance. Jack's hood fluttered over her head like a billowing shield.

"Is that it?" she wheezed through a cold breath and Jack turned.

When they were both facing west, he saw it. There was a tiny building with a pointed bell tower made entirely of brick.

It looked worn down from the elements and the years of facing the ocean, but it was beautiful against the winter snow and the cliff.

"Yeah, that's gotta be the church," he answered and he gripped her hand before he started heading onto the second dirt path. "Come on."

As they stepped onto the road heading to the church, Jack and Tooth realised, it looked much worse than they'd originally thought. It looked like had been abandoned and was just a ghostly monument left there for tourists and passer-byers – and it made them suddenly wary.

What if the rendezvous really _was _secret? Would they jeopardise her handmaiden's safety by leaving their mark on this place too?

Tooth shot Jack a look, and he nodded, reading her train of thought. So lifting his empty hand, he flexed his fingers for a powerful torrent to meander through his fingers. Then when his gene prickled under his skin, Jack threw his whole arm out and a violent wind from the sea surged down ahead of them.

Under his control, Jack moved the north wind around him and Tooth, locking them in an air bubble as the winds blew heavily onto the snow down the road and up to the church.

It wiped all the light snow ahead from the dirt path, and as they walked, the wind behind them pushed the snow back onto their footprints and covered them completely. It even left a flourish of frost over thanks to the moist sea air around them that he dropped quickly in temperature.

Tooth's mouth fell open as she looked around them in awe – so that was why Jack was put in something called the _Winter_ division. He could come and go with the wind like he wanted and wipe any trace that they were there. He could be anywhere and not leave a trace that people didn't already suspect as a force of nature.

But Jack was a force, all in himself. Powerful yet graceful, and not to be reckoned with.

It was amazing and as he continued to focus on his work, she squeezed his hand in support and remained silent.

…

_Abandoned church, 11:51 a.m._

Once they reached the abandoned church, Jack broke the deadbolt on the front door and they moved inside. The wind instantly stopped rushing into her ears and Tooth pushed down Jack's hood from her face. Jack came up beside her and brushed snowflakes off the collar of his black turtleneck under his brown leather jacket. He stared at the poinsettia he'd given her resting in the part of her hair that she'd tied up – she was planning give it to Tuhina as a late Christmas present, which he was okay with since he knew he couldn't imagine Tooth not being her usual, beautiful, selfless-self.

Jack turned and shut the mighty oak door, letting the smell of that familiar incense that most churches had drift into his nostrils.

"It's e-empty," she stated as the two swept their pink and blue gazes around the grand (but rundown) one-room church. It looked like once upon a time, this church was probably the most beautiful structure in the area. But that must've been decades ago – now it was just a mausoleum of itself, and was the perfect place for clandestine events, cool, dark, and cavernous.

The two then threw their eyes up at the faded, eclectic stained glass windows before they held hands again.

Jack reached into his weapons belt and pulled out the LX rod Aster had given him and handed the other to Tooth. As they turned them on, they moved forward and gazed at everything warily. The dead world around them echoed under their boots.

"Tu..._Tuhina?"_ Toothiana called softly, her voice bouncing off the walls and down the short corridors.

Jack furrowed his eyebrows.

"I don't think she's here yet, Tooth," he mumbled and he glared softly at the lonely altar left in the church. When he spoke, the warm air passed over his lips and fogged up his vision. Tooth's was worse though since she was of normal body temperature.

"W-Well, then I'm glad," she said. "It means we beat them and when she arrives, she'll see me...and not worry about how creepy this place is."

Jack nodded absentmindedly and pulled up his sleeve to glance down at the digital watch on his wrist that Aster left him.

"Yeah, we're early," he reassured her then peered down on short hallway before he threw his head up to the high ceilings and around in a large circle.

"But why would North want them to hide here?" he mumbled out loud, voicing the exact same thing as the princess. "It's too cold in here for a little girl...and it's out of the way. I don't get it."

Tooth stopped and turned to him. When she saw his suspicious gaze, she nodded.

"M-Maybe you _should_ call him."

Not a second later, Jack was already fishing into his weapons belt for the tiny complink Aster had given him and put it in his left ear.

With a quick nod of confirmation to Tooth, he turned it on.

Two seconds later–

"_**Jack?"**_

The familiar, gruff tone of the Russian drifted down Jack's ear canal and a part of him relaxed almost instantly.

At least their connection wasn't broken.

"_Da,"_ Jack confirmed before switching to Луна. _"It's me."_

"_**Well, **__**S Rozhdestvom Kristovym (Merry Christmas)**__** to you, good friend. But why are you using line? Are you not coming to see Bunny and I?"**_

"Bunny?" Jack muttered to himself before he shook his head – maybe Nicolas thought Aster was a bit of furry nut too.

The thought almost made him smirk...almost.

"_Nic, listen," _he spoke sternly._ "Toothiana and I decided to travel up to Sussex to meet with her handmaiden first. The one you're relocating from Tallinn."_

There was a pause as Jack caught Tooth's hopeful gaze flit around, anticipating her another reunion with her younger sister.

"_**What?" **_North finally asked.

"_Yeah, but what I wanna know is why you picked such a terrible place for a rendezvous. The decor over here needs a serious facelift. __How long were y__ou expecting to hide her here?"_

"_**Who? Jack, WHO are you talking about?" **_the head of the ELF organization demanded._**"And speak slow! I am very stressed right now and y–"**_

"_Tooth's handmaiden, North! __Her clone!"_ Jack interrupted before he hated himself for saying the C-word. He knew now Tooth could understand Луна thanks to her IALC. _"Why'd you move her from Estonia to some creepy, Canadian church on the coast?"_

When there was another beat of hesitation, Jack was sure he could imagine North freezing mid-step. The man looked like a pacer when they'd first met.

"_**How did you know her location?" **_North asked urgently.

Jack resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"_We've SEEN the other tooth boxes," _he mentioned. _"We've opened them too. __We knew she was there."_

But Jack didn't dare mention Tooth's ability and as she listened to their conversation, translating every word, she was grateful to him.

Jack continued.

"_But we're waiting for her, we're already standing in the relocation zone and I have to tell you, this ISN'T the place to hide a little–"_

"_**Jack! What relocation?!" **_North barked.

A second later, Jack heard him on the other end shout at Phil and the other first officers to take over for him, then his big, clomping boots moved away and a door slammed shut. All the background noise from the warehouse faded away instantly.

"_**Now," **_North said urgent but slow. _**"Jack, I did NOT tell any ELF to relocate. So what are you saying?"**_

"_What?!"_

Tooth spun at the sound of Jack's enraged tone. He stopped walking and tugged her back by accident but when she looked, his eyes were alight under the shine of his LX rod and his jaw was clenched.

She felt dread pool into her stomach as he let go of her hand.

"Wh-What is he–"

"_Then WHY is he moving–"_

_**"******__J_ack, my men move at MY orders. MINE!" the Slavic GUARDIAN barked. _**"And I never, I repeat NEVER gave the green light to move a **_**tooth!"**

"_But why didn't you?" _Jack sighed angrily and pushed a hand into his hair. _"Five have already gotten kidnapped thanks to your damn cases. And_–_"_

Jack stopped berating the man on the complink and froze. At the exact time he did, North did the same on his end. They both realised it at the same time.

_**"******__A _mole..." Nicolas breathed.

Jack's fingers twitched.

"_You said Tuhina was never greenlighted to leave Estonia,"_ he murmured, fear trickling down into his stomach like Tooth's. _"Which means...he's a double–"_

_**"******__J_ACK!" North barked. _**"Get the princess OUT OF THERE! IDTI! (GO!)"**_

And like a cracked whip, Jack rushed forward and grabbed Tooth's arm. At the same time, he pulled out his rifle. She yelped and tried to let go but when she saw his distressed glare, she dropped her defence.

"Wh-What's wrong?!" she gasped worriedly. "Is she coming?"

"I need to hide you!" Jack cried and North agreed into the mic.

_**"Da, Jack!"**_ he barked as he slipped into English. _**"Hide her NOW! If Nightmare really did kill ELF and replace him, he is luring Tuhina there for–Phillip! Bunny!"**_

Jack instantly heard a ruckus go off through the complink – it sounded like North had just stormed back into the workshop and was shouting for his yeti-lookalike-of a-first-officer.

_**"****Phil! Bunny!**" _he heard the Cossack shout. Aster's voice instantly shouted and despite his bitter taste for the Australian, Jack had never wanted to hear his voice more (other than Tooth's or Emma's) in the last twelve hours.

_**"Oy! What did I say about calling me that, y'bloody–"**_

_**"No time talk!" **_the Russian barked. _**"Pull up last night Nightmare track!"**_

_**"Grubguergfhugerbugh!" **_

Jack raised his impatient eyebrows when Phil garbled in the background but North instantly understood.

_**"Yes, yes! Canada! NOW!"**_

As a silence fell, Jack decided to focus all his attention on Tooth. He dropped his hold on her arm when she reached down quickly to pull out one of her own rifles, fingers poised on the barrel. When she looked at him, she instinctively knew what to do and they moved into Position #4 of their tag-team gun stance. Turning diagonally to the right, she poised her gun at the floor and tightened her arms while Jack pressed his shoulder to hers and faced the opposite direction in the exact same stance.

Then they moved in a circle, side-by-side and straining to hear sounds, eyeing each tiny corridor. Their LX rods were crossed beneath their guns in a Harries hold as they lit up their ways but many of the corridors had caved it from years or rotting wood and weather-worn bricks.

"What did he say, Jack?" Tooth kept gasping. "W-What did he _say?!"_

She moved her feet in two-steps, remembering the Bagua circular patterns Jack taught her, and trusting her feet as she focused on the room around her. Meanwhile, the brunette drew up a mental floor plan of the church and all the objects he could use at his disposal.

He gritted his teeth.

"North never told an ELF to relocate Tuhina from Estonia to here," Jack finally said and her heart stopped.

"H-He _didn't?!"_

"No," he said as they continued moving, silently and anxious. "So it means he's either a mole working for someone and bringing her here for something else...or the original ELF is dead and this guy's a de facto."

And cold sweat dripped down Tooth's neck.

"_Pitch."_

"So I have to hide you," he said desperately. "Because if this _is_ a double agent, then who knows what'll happen to her unless we get her away from him. You get a good look at him through your sister?"

"Y-Yeah," Tooth replied and gulped. "D-Dark skin...and a gap between his teeth."

_'Ugh, leave it to _me_ to notice someone's teeth,'_ she groaned in her head – Jack was fine with it though because teeth and bone structure were useful in later identification if, by his own mistake, he let the mole escape and needed to mentally facial reconstruct his distinct dental features for Aster.

"Okay," Jack noted and nodded his head though she couldn't see it.

But as they moved in a dizzying circle, Jack grew more frustrated, not finding a place to find Tooth that wasn't in view of the front door – there _was _none.

A second later, North came back on the complink.

_"****__Ja_ck," North said urgently. _**"Last night, ELF watchers picked up Nightmare conduit drifting near Atlantic Ocean but we ignored. It did not create disturbance."**_

Jack instantly stopped running.

"_**But it's heading for you. It's heading for Tuhina."**_

"_Shit," _Jack breathed shakily and he looked sideways at Tooth. A Nightmare delivery ship was coming to pick up Tuhina with her fake ELF and take her back to Pitch's lair. A _ship!_ Which meant it was going to be crawling with Pitch's men.

"Jack?" Tooth called before Jack spotted an alcove over her shoulder. It was on the left side of the church behind on the large pillars close to the back.

"You getting dizzy, already?"

"N-No."

"Good," then he touched her arm and guided her to the column near the back. It wasn't the best hiding spot, but she couldn't be spotted by the anyone coming through the front of the church.

As Jack checked the time on his watch again, Tooth looked up at him with nervous eyes.

"You can see them from here," he stated steady and low as his face went cold again. "But they can't see you, so make sure it stays that way."

"Are you sure Tuhina is coming?" she mumbled nervously, and when a warm puff of air left her lips and floated up to his jaw, Jack looked at her quickly and nodded.

"Yeah, I think so, Tooth," Jack said gently before he shoved something into both her ears.

"Wear my ear plugs," he stated. "They don't block out noise but they cancel out any high frequency above 20,000 Hz."

Tooth immediately reached up to touch her ear canals.

"Wh–"

"Just _wear_ them," he barked. "I don't know what to expect so let's be ready."

"I'll get my own next time." She then looked down at her shaking hands nervously. "But where are _you_ gonna hide?"

"I'm not."

She looked up vehemently.

"_Jack_–"

"Tooth, something's up, so let me confirm what's going on!" he urged. "But then I'll get her...I promise."

Tooth nodded until Jack leaned more into her face.

"No matter what you hear," he whispered urgently. "Or what you sense, _don't _come out yet unle–"

"I know, Jack. I learned from you."

When he stopped at her wrists, he looked down at the gun he was holding in his hand and bit his lower lip.

He couldn't let Tooth's little sister (if she really _was_ coming) to see him like that – not to forget, if the ELF was a mole, the gun would set him off instantly. But he was more concerned with Tuhina's fears, so with a quick change of weaponry, Jack re-holstered his gun.

Tooth was silently aware when he pulled out his short rod instead before he grabbed her hands gently.

"I can't let her see that," he muttered darkly and glared at the floor. Tooth looked at him with appreciation.

She then squeezed his hands back before tossing a quick look over her shoulder to look around the column. When she got a quick mental picture of her surroundings, she pulled back.

"I-I've got your back," she muttered bravely. "But be careful, and watch out for Tuhi or so help me–"

"_Nothing's _gonna happen," he pressured. "I'll protect her, like I protect you, because I–"

Jack suddenly heard voices with his acute hearing.

He quickly pulled away from her.

_"Jack!_" Tooth whispered, wanting to know what he was finishing to say, but his hand slipped from hers.

_"Trust me,"_ he whispered and made a wave-gesture with his hand before his gaze on her was short-lived._ "I'll be quick as a bunny."_

Then like slow motion, she let the blue in his eyes break from her before he walked back briskly to the front of the church.

A second later, the front door opened with an ominous _boom_ and a howl from the wind.

…

_Abandoned church, 12:06 p.m._

"And who will meet us there, sir?" Tuhina's high voice asked as she gripped his hand tightly. It was so cold she was shivering under her winter coat like a leaf in a snowstorm.

She never wanted to come back to Canada unless it was summertime.

The ELF smiled down at her but she didn't pick up the coyness in the quirk of his lips.

"My 'little friends'," he said through his accent. "The others who will protect you."

"Like the castle _guards_," Tuhina started to count off her tiny fingers in her mitten. "And the body _guards_, and the other ELF…"

The ELF nodded charismatically.

"Yes, _kleintjie_," he said patiently. "So let me call my friends with the phone in the back of this church."

"Your friend's phone is in a scary place!" she commented and he laughed lightly.

"Yes, _very _scary."

As they started to walk, Tuhina began reciting their address proudly to herself to make herself brave.

"Maces Bay, New Brunswick...Maces Bay, New Br–Oh,_ wh-who's that?"_

The tiny girl's voice bounced around the room so loud and was followed by such a silence that a pin could've dropped in the farthest corner and they would've heard it.

The ELF and her stopped just as the church's front entrance closed behind them and blocked out the winter cold.

They encountered a brunette standing close to the center of the church.

Tuhina was immediately nervous that he was the only one in the giant, empty room – the ELF was suspicious of his straight, confident, and unmoving stance...not to mention the short, black rod in his only gloved hand.

Jack made his face placid.

He didn't want to terrify Tooth's tiny handmaiden but inside, he had his regular cold fury rising.

'_Kidnapping is form of hostage crisis, you bastard,'_ Jack recited anxiously in his head, replaying all the missions he did on behalf of protective services as a regular spy and the takedowns he was assigned as a GUARDIAN. '_But his initial phase of the situation is already a success since he's subdued the hostage, and managed to barricade her in a specific location...not for too long I hope.'_

Tooth's physical description of him had been correct...but Jack didn't move.

The ELF didn't move.

Tooth didn't move.

Only Tuhina was the one squirming in the man's hold.

"Sir, who is that man? Is he your friend?"

She thought he was very cute for an older boy and while he only looked at her for two seconds before his gaze lifted up to stare at her ELF, the ten-year-old's rosy cheeks grew more red than they did when she was outside.

The ELF said nothing, but the more Jack didn't react, the more Tuhina got nervous.

"_Who is he, sir?" _the ten-year-old whispered and tugged his deep red sleeve. _"Who is he?"_

Jack tightened his grip on his rod.

'_He'd only come to a secluded location unless his communication was one-way, that's often the case. Which means he's gonna wait for the go-ahead...and the advantage is in his favour, damn it.'_

Jack knew he needed to get Tuhina away from him – and he knew Tooth needed her sister.

Tooth was immobile with fear.

Her fingers shook so badly she thought she'd drop her gun and create a catastrophe on the floor until she gritted her teeth and tightened her grip on the handle.

When Tuhina's high and familiar voice rung through her ears she almost cried out. It felt like it had been months...but it was really only a few days since she heard her sister speak when she helped prepare her for her first gala.

* * *

_"Whoa! No! Not yet, princess!" Tuhina grinned and Tooth huffed as she plopped back down. She heard all her jewellery jingle around her neck and wrists, and on her ears._

_"Not yet?!"_

_"Almost! Just one more thing!"_

* * *

'_Be careful, Jack,' _she told herself as she shut her eyes.

If he got himself into trouble, then _she'd_ probably take a whack at him too.

So with a steady breath, she widened her eyes slightly and tried establishing a mental link through Tuhi's eyes.

Almost instantly, the entire world flipped position.

Tooth watched through the ten-year-old's turquoise orbs what she was seeing.

There was a deep red pant leg on her right that her tiny mittens were clutching...the empty church looked incredibly huge and intimidating...Jack was standing tall and unmoving in front of the both of them...and when Tuhina looked down for second, she even caught her tiny, red winter coat. It was so thick and bundled she reminded Tooth of a giant marshmallow.

The princess' heart raced.

But even though she wanted to run to her sister, something inside her told her stay put. Every bone, every fibre in her being that wanted to pull Tuhina close, and it had nothing to do with being Center gene or clone-related.

But she swallowed a large lump in her throat when she remembered, the memories from the hotel in England.

When she pushed everyone aside for Tiana, the calamity that followed was horrible! She turned her back on the ELFs who'd protected her and her uncle _and Prime Minister _of her country.

She couldn't put anyone in jeopardy like that, and let her emotions run wild again.

So even though the ELF was holding her hand and smiling, she didn't move.

Tooth chose to stay frozen...because she was afraid that she would mess up again if she rushed in too quickly – she'd learned too much already by now to know rushing, not backed by rational thinking, usually meant Game Over.

Jack had taught her that...but it was still so hard to have her sister so close and so there.

Tuhina kept trying to tug her hand out of the ELF's grip but his hold was like iron.

"_What is his name?"_ she whispered.

The double-agent ELF said nothing, giving the Jack a deep heated glare while the temperature in the room dropped several degrees and the wind speed picked up. Hands were twitching at (or for) their guns, and all eyes were dead set except two.

Tuhina's turquoise eyes were shaky, fleeting about the obvious tense men in the room. The second pair of unfocused eyes belonged to Tooth, steady from afar but completely apparent up close that she was anxious and unnerved with every right to be.

Then the ELF finally spoke.

"What is this?" he murmured but he was heard easily throughout the empty, cavernous church. His tone suggested underlying trouble, despair, and aggravation.

Jack turned his head slightly 45º to assess the Tuhina's posture and facial expression with his peripheral vision.

'_Assess the hostage: She__ appears healthy and safe,' _he observed mentally. _'But the situation locked in, and his firearms visible at his gun holster along with the worn out gauntlets on his arms. __History of toughness, environmental protection and flexibility.__ He's prepared for outside conditions. Probably his specialty.'_

He then turned back to the ELF's dark-skinned face under the hood.

"Just surveying the church," he played nonchalantly. "Making sure it's still stable after last night's snowstorm. What are _you_ doing here? "

"I'm just taking _die klein meisie_ _(the little girl)_ to her family," the ELF said plainly but he squinted his eyes. He was trying to remember Jack's face against all the men he'd been assigned to meet. The brunette did have one of those American faces, but his eyes were too keen to be a mere church inspector. He lifted a hand back to shield Tuhina although the younger peeked over it.

Jack clenched his jaw.

_'Afrikaan accent...maybe from a Nightmare post in South Africa or Namibia...or Botswana.'_

"_Through _the church?" Jack challenged. "It's been bolted down for years."

"But _I _was not the one who damaged that lock," the ELF pointed out, flicking his eyes with his peripheral vision to look behind him.

"_Perhaps...not an ELF,"_ the man murmured to himself but Tuhina heard it and blew his cover.

"He knows about the ELFs too?" Tuhina said wonderfully outloud and the ELF snapped his head down at her.

"_Tuhina!"_ he barked. "Shh, be–" But she was already trying to move around the ELF's arm to look at Jack.

"Are _you_ an ELF too, mister?"

The ELF paused and looked at the brunette.

"Yes," he repeated suspiciously. "..._are you?"_

But when Jack didn't immediately respond, a light bulb in the other man's head went off.

_"No_...No, he's not an ELF," the double agent sneered with a dark smile though the little girl couldn't see it. He then started moving her slowly behind him and Jack reacted.

He knew not to react brashly in these tense hostage situations because anything could set the hostage takers off. But with her behind him, he couldn't see what was happening.

Tooth could though, but all she saw was long legs and red pants. She glared behind the column.

"Cover your ears, miss," the ELF suddenly said gently. His smirk did not leave his face, his cracked facade visible to Jack.

Jack's eyebrows lifted ever so slightly.

"But why?" she challenged and crossed her tiny arms. "I'm big enough to understand! And I promise won't say anything."

"Do it, and start humming to yourself or _I _promise I'll tell you the story _Who is the Thief? _again," he lightly teased.

"Aww, not again! That story's boring!" Tuhina whined and a pang in Tooth's heart went off when she heard the familiar whine.

He raised an eyebrow with a smile. "Well?"

Tuhina then huffed and pulled her hat over her eyes to not tempt herself – that's what the weird but friendly flight attendants taught her on the plane ride from Europe. "Okay..."

Tooth pouted when her gaze through Tuhina was blinded by the darkness of her hat. Her heart started to beat fast again with worry.

Well, there went her ability to see and keeping an eye on Jack.

What could she do now?! There were no reflective surfaces in sight and she sure as hell couldn't peek around the pillar!

The ELF would see, Jack would be screwed, and–

Suddenly, she stopped.

Tuhina started to hum to herself again, shielding herself behind the ELF from the cute but grumpy looking man.

Jack and the ELF didn't know _what _the heck she was singing.

But the song floated around the room and crashed over Tooth like a tidal wave.

As the memory bubbled up, her eyes grew wide...

* * *

_One year ago_

* * *

_They all sang the song together, with Tooth perched on a giant silk pillow and Tiati clapping in her lap. It was morning and they'd all just gotten up and wanted to be lazy until Tiana started humming the a song that all the kids knew around the island and they got crazy._

"_Chang, chang, chang, chang, chang!"  
(Elephant, elephant, elephant, elephant, elephant!)_

_Tia turned to Theena and poked her in the nose._

"_Nong hei __**kun**__ chang rue plaow?"  
(Have __**you**__ ever seen an elephant?)_

"_Hey!" Theena yelled and chased her around the room. BT rolled her eyes and Tiana got up to dance in a circle._

"_Chang mun tua toh mai bow!" she sang.  
(The elephant is quite big and not so small!)_

"_Jamook yaow yaow (With a long nose)," Tooth sang and Tiati looked up at her added, "Ria wa nguang! (Called a trunk!)"_

_BT got up and picked up Theena and helped her chase the second eldest sister around the room. singing as she laughed._

"_Mee kheaw tai nguang, riak wa nga!"  
(It has fangs beneath the trunk called tusks!)_

_Theena beneath to eat Tia as she and Tatiana chased her. Then the last three girls, Tulia, Tina, and Tuhina clapped in their pillows on the floor._

"_Mee hoo mee ta hang yaow!"  
(It has ears, it has eyes and a long tail!)_

"_Yeah!" BT then cried. "Now dog pile on the princess!"_

_Next thing Tooth knew, all eight of her sisters were squishing her small chest to the floor._

_**"******__B_ABY TOOTH!_"_

_And they laughed as they sat on top of her._

* * *

Tooth clamped a hand shut over her mouth when a tiny, muffled cry threatened to leave her. She inhaled deeply and tried to look ahead.

Every tiny note made her heart twist under her shirt as Tuhina kept singing softly in the background. She couldn't dwell on it though because the ELF was starting to speak again.

When he was sure she wasn't listening, the ELF smirked at Jack, his face complacent and calm.

"So you wish to tell me why you are really here, stranger?"

But Jack wasn't in the talking mode.

"You did not know this church."

His fingers twitching and his gene was crackling under his chest, and his mind working overdrive. Hostage-takers were always emotionally disturbed, and if jack suspected correctly, this ELF (or whoever he was) was unstable for a particular reason.

The ELF continued without Jack's response.

"Because I know this scene, far better than _you,_" he said his broken English almost all but vanishing. "You would know not to step where you are standing because the water damage is apparent on those tiles, or that the draft that comes through is directly in your wind path."

"Maybe I like the wind," Jack finally muttered and stood perfectly still. "Maybe I'm going to come by with my family and patch up the floor."

"Don't think you are smart," the ELF sneered. "You have no local accent. You are _not_ from here."

Jack continued to blink, but he said nothing.

His mind went heavily into creating a psychological profile of the ELF.

A second later though, the man under the red hood glared.

"So _who_ are _you?"_ he said hotly.

Jack made sure to make his responses and reactions slow and careful – he couldn't immediately grab Tuhina, but he couldn't threaten the ELF with all the control the man had right now in the moment. So he decided to delay his time.

If that Nightmare delivery ship _did _need him to make a signal with a device on the other side of the church at a precise time, then Jack could stall him long enough.

"You didn't make the call yet," Jack said calmly, trying to prompt a reaction from the ELF, paying close attention to the hostage-taker's responses, mannerisms and general attitude.

The ELF's face was still tense and suspicious.

"You are the dispatcher?" the ELF guessed – Jack did nothing to either confirm or deny it. The ELF however took a chance; since other undercover Nightmares usually dressed dark and casual like Jack did, he figured he was a member of the ship's crew – they hadn't set up a coded conversation so he was probably the prompter who came ahead. Plus, the brunette had a dark aura air of authority around him.

The ELF tightened his jaw, but spoke again.

"I did not make the call," he replied. "The only key to activate it is behind that altar." When he pointed behind Jack, Jack didn't look, pretending like he already knew.

The ELF's lips turned down.

"But you arrived anyway? Why?"

Jack smirked down at her quickly before he shrugged.

"Maybe I just didn't want to see you screw up."

But when the ELF chuckled to himself, Jack's hard expression returned.

"_Why_ is she still _here?" _he asked curtly. "The ship will anchor close to the bay soon."

Just one more prompt, then Jack would know if he really _was _ Nightmare.

"Yes, it will be here soon for her," the ELF darted his eyes around Jack and the room. Jack mirrored his gaze, trying to memorise the ELF's own observation points. It was all like a game really, a highly-intensive one involving everyone he could see.

But the thing was, Tooth _couldn't_ see.

Frustrated, she thought about her new compact mirror. She didn't buy it in the convenience store with Jack for vanity, but she'd seen those spy movies when women used to their advantage to see behind them or for weird angles – and this was definitely a time worth using it.

"So make the call," Jack said and took a step to the side and opened his arm out to the altar behind him. He was done talking.

Tooth exhaled silently.

She could tell Jack was stalling for _something_ and bless his heart he was good at it. But her nerves were shot and every second she kept hiding she felt like she'd throw up from the fear and anxiety building up inside her.

The ELF shook his head.

"I would rather not now because you are here already," he answered and Jack glared coldly.

He then violently extended his short rod and held it in a tight grip.

"Don't give a _damn_ about me and just do your job already," Jack ordered with the ferocity of a commanding officer he'd once been for thugs like him.

The ELF's dark eyes grew wide.

Even Tooth felt her skin crawl at the edge in Jack's tone – and more than twelve hours ago she practically made out with that same guy?

Her cheeks warmed.

Then again, she'd known him when he was like that even long _before_ yesterday.

_'Argh, if only I could see!'_

Thinking quickly, Toothiana reached into her trenchcoat pocket as slow and silent as she could until she pulled out her compact mirror and opened it. But it took her forever to figure out how it worked and how not to get caught.

The ELF blinked.

"But that does not make sense."

"And why _not?" _Jack seethed.

His gene started to react more and he couldn't immediately pick up why. Was it the air in the room? The handmaiden?

"Because you are in charge," the ELF said.

Then he smirked evilly.

"So why don't you?"

When the princess finally got the angle right, she tried to adjust quickly.

In those three seconds though, she missed covering her partner's back and a second later, Jack heard something like a gun's safety lock click off directly behind his head.

And he froze.

Because he knew it wasn't Tooth.

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: **"Ezio's Family" (Assassin's Creed II) – Jesper Kyd You think I'd miss a chance to throw in an AC track? (; It's got this amazing broken traveler's melody to it that I love. ****And the song the sisters keep singing is a cute Thai kids song called The 'Chang' Song (or Elephant song) and _Who is the Thief?_ is an old African folktale.  
**

**Big thanks to RandomNerdyGirl too for helping me translate a little Afrikaans! You're so nice!**


	37. The Blue-Eyed Blizzard

******And in three...two...**

* * *

_CLINCH!_

Jack turned his head slightly.

The gun's safety lock echoed for a moment, high up around the church.

Through his peripheral vision, he saw something swing back and forth in the person's hand behind him, glinting in the pale light that came through the dirty windows.

The newcomer was unmoving and unsettlingly calm, but his dark chuckle made his appearance more troublesome, especially when it sent goosebumps shooting up Toothiana's arms. With a heartbeat pounding and a shaking compact mirror, the princess' eyes grew wide. She thought of nothing but the man standing behind Jack and the glock leveled at his head.

The former suddenly smirked under his black hoodie and yellow visor.

"You know what the national bird of Estonia is, pretty boy?" he teased coldly as he kept swinging the golden tooth box in his other glove.

Jack lifted his gaze higher.

Another slightly taller, and slimmer Nightmare clad in black was leering down at him. He didn't look like he was going to pull the trigger anytime soon and wanted to enjoy the time taunting the brunette.

To prove his point, his smirk split into a malevolent grin.

"Well?" he insisted. "Do you?"

Jack didn't answer.

At the sound of a new voice, Tuhina stopped singing and tried pull up her hat.

"S-Sir, what is going–Hey!"

The Nightmare disguised as the ELF turned and shoved his hand onto her toque to stop her from seeing.

"Not _yet!_" he said roughly and Tuhina froze. That was the first time he ever sounded upset and a part of her almost didn't want to hear what was happening. She continued to lift her hat anyway.

"But–"

"No! _Keep _singing!"

She whined again before she yanked the ends of her woolly hat tightly over her eyes again. Toothiana pulled Jack's hoodie lower over her head too.

She DID NOT want to keep hiding, not anymore, but god forbid she blew Jack's cover...then she'd lose _two_ people she cared about.

She pressed herself harder into the stone wall.

Pitch's hitman moved right and started to walk in front of the brunette. He gripped the gold case with a tight hold but kept his gun still aimed at Jack. But when he finally got a look at Jack's face, his eyebrows lifted slightly. Jack's eyes landed on him and he scowled.

The Nightmare frowned.

"You look familiar," he commented suddenly and made his lips a tight line as he pondered on it.

Jack squinted at him.

"I've got one of those faces, buddy," he remarked coldly, still in his dark persona. "You're not that fucking smart."

But the hooded man shook his head. He started to tap the gold tooth box on his chin as he kept thinking about it. It took all of Jack's control to not glance down at the treasured piece of Tooth's memories.

"No...No, there's something about you, specifically," he mumbled. "Just can't put my finger on it."

As he said the last part, Tooth watched him stroke the trigger of his rifle, and it made her insides churn like garbage and acid. This guy was a real creep and an absolute nightm...Nevermind.

"_Maybe _because he is one of the dispatchers_,_" the ELF spat and kept his dark red glove on Tuhina's head even though she kept trying to worm her way out of his suddenly tight grip. "He came to make sure I brought the girl."

The ELF mole glared at him. It was easy to see since the cover of his red hood didn't cover his eyes, but after a short moment, he turned to look at Tuhina.

Jack countered with a glare back. Every second that man stood in that red uniform was a desecration against Nicolas and his noble workers.

But Jack didn't skip a beat.

He pointed the end of his titanium staff at the little handmaiden like she was a prize.

"Obviously," he said in a deep tone before he frowned. "I came to procure her, and I want the girl _now_. So give her to me and I'll take care of the rest."

"Slow your roll, _buddy_," the hitman said. He then leaned into Jack's line of vision to get a better view of the brunette, even though it didn't help thanks to the terrible cloud cover outside the church. "How do we even know you're one of ours? I never saw you at the dock."

Tooth held her breath as Jack continued easily.

"Because _idiot_, I was stationed in town until you arrived today," he hissed and glared at the two of them. "After of the influx of Nightmare deaths, poor progress reports, and damaged tech, you think Pitch wants another fucker ruining Operation Nightmare?"

The two didn't say anything.

Toothiana's mind suddenly went into overdrive.

_Operation Nightmare?_

Jack had never mentioned it before...no one had, but was _that _was she and her sister's kidnappings initialized as? She'd never asked but it looked like she would have to once this interrogation and altercation were all over.

She gulped silently and clenched her teeth tightly as she felt more than saw Jack's eyebrow raise.

"_Well?_" he sneered.

The other Nightmare scowled.

"_You _first," he challenged. He didn't like to be told what to do by anyone (unless it was Pitch), especially by a little shit like this guy. Jack tightened his grip on his rod and frowned with an indignant air of authority around him.

"You_ doubt_ my loyalty?"

"I doubt _any _Nightmare's loyalty," he countered. "Why do you think Pitch chooses us? _We trust NO ONE._"

Jack gritted his teeth.

* * *

_"Are you insane?!" he seethed down at her and tried to yank her back. "We can't trust anyone."_

* * *

How long ago had that been _Jack's_ oath too?

It couldn't even be classified as long ago...It was literally twenty-four hours previous that he–

Tooth watched with a thumping heart and hand over her mouth angrily as Jack gripped his staff and pretended to be upset by this ridiculous negotiation. Then he shut his eyes with an aggravated sigh and dropped the staff on the ground while the hitman looked at his waist belt and nudged his chin.

"Gun too," he added and Jack fixed his cold glare on him (and the gun still aimed at his head) as he slowly reached behind his weapons belt and unholstered his rifle. Then he scowled and tossed it at his feet too before he raised his hands.

"That's it," he stated. But when they eyed him surreptitiously, he glared at him.

"_What?_" he growled as he tossed his gaze on the blind little handmaiden. "You stay in a shitty town like this, you can't bring that many weapons."

Normally Jack _never_ negotiated or give up anything for _anyone_, and if it was Pitch he was standing face to face with, even considering a gambit was highly destructive. But these guys weren't high-category terrorists or criminal masterminds.

They were underlings and they were pathetic.

"Alright, I _did_ what you asked..." Jack started. The he lifted his hand out for Tuhina and fixed the ELF with a cold look. "...now let her go."

The ELF suddenly smirked and the Nightmares gave him a sly look.

"No," he finally admitted and they began to snicker under their breaths.

Yeah, completely pathetic.

And for a split second, Jack pretended to make his eyes grow wide slightly with shock before he glared viciously again and pulled his hand back to him.

As he did though, he flexed his fingers.

"Now why doesn't that surprise me?" he growled, shaking his head slightly as he looked at him just under fringe of his bangs.

Tooth gripped her gun, thinking the exact same thing.

But did that mean Jack had a plan?

'**_Bastards_,**' she mouthed to herself behind the stone wall. What could she do to help him? She'd blow his cover if she (as Jack put it) became a de facto in his plot...but was his plot even working? It sounded like–

The hitman leaned in suddenly and his mouth fell open slightly.

"Hang on..." he muttered then he pulled away. "I remember you now."

Jack squinted through his glare.

"Really?" he spat. "Because I sure as hell don't remember you–"

The hitman waved the gold case again. "You were the one who tossed me out of that _fucking car._ The one with that _bitch _at the wheel."

Tooth nearly dropped her compact mirror.

* * *

_"NO!" she yelled angrily. "G-Get away!"_

* * *

"Where is she, then?" the assassin smirked. "Your little Chinese girlfriend run off with that big guy?"

All at once, she recognized his mouth, his visor, and his hood. He was the one who–

* * *

_Tooth's hair pulled at her roots and she yelled out. "NO!"_

* * *

Jack said nothing, perfectly in control as he always was, but his adrenaline was spiking and his fingers stopped twitching for a second.

"You...You are not a Nightmare," the ELF mole finally spat and pushed Tuhina further behind him. Tooth's heart raced both fearfully and annoyed.

Suddenly, the wind picked up through the crack in the window the ELF had mentioned earlier. It created a whistling noise but the Nightmare was too invested in Jack's reactions to notice.

Until he frowned deeply.

"You know," Jack finally said as he looked up at the window, listening to the wind. "I know the answer to your question...It's a barn swallow."

The two Nightmares glared. "What?"

"What?" Jack asked coyly. "Is the wind too loud?"

The hitman shoved his gun against Jack's forehead, provoked and pissed off.

Then hitman growled under his breath as Jack exhaled deeply, emitting a warm puff of air from his lips.

"Can't handle the cold?" the hitman sneered, thinking Jack's slight bristle was from his gun.

It wasn't the gun though.

It was his gene.

"Heh," and he showed a dark grin. "...can _you?"_

A moment later, when they couldn't see, Jack snapped his wrist down into a tight fist.

...

_FWOOM!_

A sound like something large breaking through glass was heard.

The wind was strong and malevolent, and smashed through the crack in the high window of the church. It brought with it a loud and horrible whooshing that made the entire structure of the church rattle and awaken.

The hitman was surprised by the torrents as they curled themselves around into the church. Even the ELF stared up out of the corner of his dark eyes as the wind expanded the cold air in the room and dropped the temperature.

And in their distraction, Jack snapped his hand up to grab the Nightmare's gun.

With a violent jerk, the ex-GUARDIAN twisted the gun away from his face as the hitman set it off with an echoing _bang! _before he managed to twist the wrist around so far the assassin yelled out painfully and dropped it a few feet away.

Before anyone could move into a second reaction, Jack flipped the man sideways onto the ground and used the momentum of the sweep to grab his staff. But the hitman grounded his feet to keep from falling all the way, and when Jack came back up, he was already pulling back his fist for a powerful hook.

Jack anticipated it though and with a quick raise, he deflected the forearm coming for him and knocked the other ELF away with the end of the staff. Then in a sweeping motion, he swung the other end back into the hitman's shoulder, spinning him around as he caught him around the throat with the long weapon. Jack then kicked out the man's feet from under him and tossed him sideways.

As Pitch's underling fell on his head, pain overriding his senses for the moment, the ELF watched the brunette turn to him, pressing his rod and shortening it before hiding it again.

"Don't _ever _tell me to drop my weapon again," Jack hissed.

"_That_...was a mistake!" the ELF spat under his breath and he immediately let go of Tuhina and hit Jack with a powerful uppercut at his chin.

Jack instantly reacted by throwing his own after he recovered but even though it landed on the buffer ELF's jaw, the latter was already reeling back for a right hook that sent Jack twisting sideways.

Jack didn't feel the pain and when he retaliated with a swift jab, the ELF tried to block it with his forearm. The brunette was like thunder though, relentless and unyielding and when Jack hit him again with a reverse elbow strike high up to knick the man in the jaw, the ELF couldn't block it a second time.

Jack then grabbed his shoulders and threw a knee into his stomach before he followed with a fast left hook and a right.

The ELF immediately went down and spit blood on the ground as he gazed up at the brunette. Jack was already rolling back his shoulder, ready to hit him again with his kickboxing skills igniting in his clenching fists.

Meanwhile, Tuhina was aware of the yelling happening around her and opened her mouth before she decided to lift her hat.

"S-Sir?" she cried and Tooth heard her voice echo across the church. She checked the fight through her mirror again.

"_No, Tuhi! No!_" she whispered desperately but as she watched her little sister in the reflection again, she saw something else, and instantly panicked.

The black-clad hitman was trying to get up. His gloves were tough against the hard tiles and his teeth were grinding angrily as he looked sideways.

That brown-haired bastard was going to get it...he just needed to reach over and grab his g–

_BANG!_

A second later, he let loose a bloodcurdling scream.

…

Jack shoved the ELF into the church door beside Tuhina before he turned his head back, eyes alight with energy and apprehension.

Toothiana sprinted in a heated dash from the column toward the altar, her gun poised down and her face savagely focused. She was lifting her finger away from her rifle's trigger as she moved, but her work was already spraying red across the tiles before him...the assassin's arm was numb and unmoving, bleeding inches away from his fallen gun.

When she reached the altar landed on her rear, Tooth slid into a cramped position behind the shield made of wood and stone. Her compact mirror slipped out of her pocket and rolled away a little before its loose lock made it open on the floor.

The ELF flared up with shock and looked down at the fallen man writhing in pain, wondering where that shot had come from. He immediately grew frazzled and tried to break himself away from the short (but strong) brunette, but Jack wasn't about playing tag with the kidnapper.

When the ELF delivered a hook combo and tried to get Jack with a knee strike, the latter jumped back to avert the hit and as the man lunged for him, the brunette sent powerful burst of wind at him to slow down his movements. At the last second, he pivoted on the ball on his feet and turned slightly to the left to catch the man's arm.

When Jack threw him off course, the ELF came back with a retaliation of front kicks and uppercuts that Jack deftly blocked and avoided. But when he almost got too close in, Jack spun inwards and threw an elbow strike to his chest cavity and produced a knife from his weapons belt.

Then he shoved it against the man's throat...just as Tuhina was lifting up her hat.

**"Ahhhh!"**

Her scream was high-pitched, loud and shrill, sending goosebumps up Jack and Tooth's skin as she stared wide-eyed on the once cute boy just in front of her, holding her protector at knifepoint.

Toothiana immediately reacted and looked around the altar to see what was wrong.

"_Tu–"_ she started to say, but the princess stopped.

Tuhina was still too busy screaming and trying to back away from the two males fighting, but the handmaiden hadn't heard or seen her yet.

But the Nightmare, the one she'd shot, had a perfect view.

...

Pitch's hitman rolled onto his side to get up and clutch his wounded arm with his good one, he caught movement ahead of him at the back of the church. It looked like a blue hood moving back behind the altar, and he narrowed his eyes murderously.

He gritted his teeth.

A second later, he was fervently off the ground with his gun in his right hand and stumbling for the altar, blood dripping as he ran. Jack didn't pick up on the intention as he found himself sliding on the ground between the ELF's legs to knock him away from Tuhina.

"Come out, come out, _kitty cat."_

"D'm..._Dammit!"_ Tooth squirmed violently and glared ahead of her in the heartpounding silence.

She caught his eyes, she heard his heavy footfalls, and she knew he was coming for her! And Nightmare or not, that guy looked like the pain in his arm wouldn't deter him from getting in a shot at her.

Tooth gritted her teeth. At least Jack only had one Nightmare to deal with...but how would she deal with _this _one?

That's when something caught her eye.

Looking down, Tooth saw the glint from her compact mirror, open and angled at the fight going on behind her. Jack and ELF were there for a millisecond before they jumped away and were at each other throats again. Then she saw a figure in an all-black hoodie and pants racing forward in the reflection.

_PANG!_

_"Argh!_" Tooth hissed. She turned her head sideways to avoid getting hit as the mirror's glass and plastic exploded from the gunshot.

Tuhina was still screaming but Tooth couldn't see her or the Nightmare coming anymore! But what could she do?

She rubbed her head. She'd be dead...unless...

...

The little handmaiden's eyes were wet and her tiny heart was pounding like a steamhammer in her chest, violently smashing against her ribcage.

She didn't know what to do. Her ELF was in danger as he fought the brown-haired guy, and there was a new guy wearing all black and running to the back of the church.

But why was he running to the back? Why wasn't he helping her ELF? Or was he going to use the phone?

She frowned fearfully. She wondered and waited, watching him run to the large stone and wooden stand...and that's exactly what Tooth needed.

Her eyes reflected light as she used her sister's gaze to determine just how far the ELF was from the altar.

Seven metres…

Four metres...

She gripped her gun tightly.

Two metres…

_...One!_

And timing it right just as the Nightmare was within reach of the edge of the altar, Tooth cut off the link with her sister and leapt up with a roar. She used her left hand to forcefully knock his hand with the gun away before he could pull the trigger, then fired a shot with her right.

"GAH!" a painful scream wretched itself from his lips as the bullet in his leg made him go down.

Jack was momentarily distracted by the scream and miscalculated one step too early, causing the punch that would've knocked out the ELF, to fly off course. In his recovery, the ELF produced a whip to snag his foot. Subconsciousness kicking in though, the brunette expertly backflipped away to the wall.

When he landed, Jack immediately lifted his arm above his head to catch the second crack of the whip around his tricep. As the ELF's eyes grew wide, Jack pulled out a concealed knife and in one fluid, he sliced through it then lunged after him with the sharp weapon in hand.

As for the other Nightmare facing Toothiana, when his knees hit the ground hard, she threw her elbow into his visor to crack the glass in his eyes. Blood and gash marks caking his face, she looked down at him murderously and clenched her jaw.

Without a blink, she fired her third bullet into his head and watched him fall dead under her.

"Stay _down,"_ she muttered and grabbed his rifle out of his dead grip to replace with her other empty one. Now she could protect her sister.

But as she looked up waiting for Tuhina to recognize her, she realized she wasn't there...and the church door was wide open.

"NO!"

...

Jack gritted his teeth.

He quickly tried to recover from a blow to the arm that made his fingers twitch involuntarily. But as he did, the ELF had managed to turn around and grab Tuhina, haul her through the open church entrance and back into the snow. Tuhina went willingly, but as her adrenaline rose and her heart raged with energy, Tooth wasn't about to let that happen.

Sprinting out from behind the altar, the princess made a mad dash for the entrance . When she turned her head to make sure Jack was alright, he caught her fierce look and immediately moved to stare past the open church door to see what had happened.

The ELF and Tuhina was already pretty far out in the snow away from the church.

Realizing his slip, his eyes grew wide and he turned back to her.

She didn't show signs of slowing down and just as she reached within metres of Jack, he shot her look and she understood.

"That son of a bitch is _roadkill!_"

Then trusting her feet, Tooth pounded the tiles the last few inches and jumped just as Jack lined himself with her.

When he caught her under her feet, he catapulted her through the large oak door with the wind on her heels...just as three Nightmares landed behind him.

...

Once the door vanished, she flew straight for the ELF with a courageous heart. The winds were harsh and the snow was gently falling again, but for all the lonely miles around, her rage was fuelled.

She didn't fear the short flight and squinted her eyes as she felt the ce bite her face and the wind blow Jack's hood over her head.

When the angle of her elevation started to curve downwards, she tucked in her feet and planted them on his back when she a violent shriek, Tooth collided with the ELF's back as she clutched his head for support. They both fell in the snow in a heavy tumble with Tooth still on top of him, and when she pulled herself up quickly before he could turn, the princess fired a bullet into the back of his head.

Tuhina screamed as she got up from the snow and tried to back away from the violent stranger who'd just killed her ELF. But when she tried to run away–

"TUHINA!"

She froze.

The little girl watched as the mysterious woman pulled off the blue hood and dark brown hair and familiar yellow streak fluttered in the wind. Her big sister's mouth was open, her emotions all over her face.

"T-Toothie?!" Tuhina gasped and stood there for a second unsure of what to do, before all her previous fear was replaced with love and she sprinted to her older sister.

She cried deep from inside her chest and wrapped her short arms around the princess.

"I-Is...It's really–Toothia, w-what happened t–HOW COME–"

"It's okay, I-I'm okay!" Toothiana hiccuped and used everything in her control not to cry and breakdown in the snow. She gritted her teeth as she hugged her sister tightly before she pulled away to push the hair out of both their faces.

"NOW _LISTEN!"_ Tooth cried over the harsh winds. "I need to get you out of here!"

"But the ELF, Tooth!" the little handmaiden shouted and her crying grew worse. When she tried to look back at the dead men bleeding from his head into the snow, Tooth grabbed her back. But she lashed out.

"N-No, Tooth!"

"You can't go near him!"

"NO!"

"You _can't!"_

"W-Why did you that?!...Wh-Why did you–"

She grabbed both her arms and pulled them down. "TU_HINA!"_

When the little girl froze, Tooth tugged her away.

"TUHI, _COME!_"

"W-WHY D'...ID YOU KILL HIM?!"

Tooth said nothing and forcefully put her arms around her hysterical little sister again before she lifted the tiny ten-year-old in her arms and carried her instead.

"_WH-WHY DID YOU KILL HIM?!"_ Tuhina kept crying and squirming as Tooth began to run further away from the dead man soaked in his own blood in the snow.

As Tooth kept running, she pressed Tuhina's face into her hair.

She turned back to look at Jack, still standing deep inside the church.

...

Jack caught her expression and rushed for the door but the three Nightmares made their presence known just before he reached the threshold.

When he turned though, Jack wasn't afraid of their trademark gas-masks and yellow goggles. So in a mock pose, he went into a defensive stance and lifted his fingers in a 'come and get me' gesture.

They frowned under their handkerchief covers.

They knew something was wrong on the ship when their ELF decoy hadn't made the call at the precise time so they decided to swoop in unannounced. But he was dead and the pickup was compromised. Too bad they hadn't brought their guns though.

They'd have to win with their hits instead. And when he smirked, they lunged forward.

Yet Jack fought down them hard and fast, weaving in and out of their bulky suits and landing predictable hits with his reawakened knowledge of his martial arts and Center gene abilities. He zipped and flipped into complicated twists and expert movements, whilst controlling the wind around him to block or throw their attacks off course.

In his focus, Jack was a formidable offence with an even more impenetrable defence. They couldn't fight him, couldn't touch him, even when Jack had managed to wrap his legs around one of the shorter ones' neck. He then threw his whole body back to the touch the floor under him and tossed him with the momentum of the throw. When the shorter slammed on the ground and Jack tossed a knife at another's shoulder trying to jump for him on his right side, Jack decided it was time to make an escape and headed for the front door. The odds were in his favour, but the third Nightmare wasn't about to let Jack go.

So he tried an alternate technique...one that involved using technology on their side.

He then tossed something small over Jack's head just as he leaped through the front door.

...

Jack looked ahead, he saw Tooth still running about fifty metres away with her sister still crying in her arms. After he shortened his staff and pocketed it at his belt, he then started to kick into a sprint.

"Keep running, Tooth!" he grunted as he fixated on her dark coat against the white surroundings. "Don't–"

_Beeeep!_

And when he turned back to the church wide-eyed, something knocked him off his feet.

Like buzzsaws and car explosions, Jack's senses were thrown off and he felt the entire world shake. The wind pushed him aggressively forward against his control and when he rocketed forward with a painful yell, he slammed straight onto Tooth, who had no time to get out of the way.

His body collided with hers like car in a T-bone, and as the air knocked out of her lungs, the two fell in a big heap while Tuhina left her arms. All three were then rolling in the snow, ice clawing at their skin and hard dirt under the snow cover rattling their bones.

The Nightmares watched past the blurry snowfall as their toy sent the snow whirling up.

One of Pitch's favourite inventions, his sensory scrambler, emitted a large shockwave from the black device and throw a high frequency into the air of those around it. All the Nightmares had earplugs on (along with Tooth since Jack had given her his before the fight started), and the princess was more than fifty metres away from the shockwave that she didn't caught get in the sense scrambler's high frequency screech.

'_...ack?...J...'_ Toothiana kept shouting gently. _'...ck!...t's wron...'_

_...Siiiiiiiing!_

But all he could do was shake his head.

Her voice sounded far away and his nerves were shot. He couldn't hear after that as he gripped his head and something like a high-pitched whining dropped deep into his ear canal. It was like someone had put a microphone getting feedback close to his ear and was just letting the high-pitched frequency play itself out.

But it was incredibly painful, blurring his vision and making his gene toss the wind around them sporadically.

As the princess crawled forward in the snow achingly, she grabbed Tuhina's hand with her left (the little handmaiden was knocked out cold from the fall) then reached over and grabs Jack's hand with her right.

"Tu...J-Jack, are you okay?!" she coughed before she recovered and looked at him. Jack was still clutching his head with his other hand.

After a few more blinks, he stopped grinding his teeth and the sharp zing in his head died away. As he vision cleared and refocused, he gasped and looked over his shoulder at Tooth.

"See, I..._"_ he wheezed. "I told y...I told you needed my earplugs."

She nodded her head to reassure him that he (and herself) was fine.

"And y...your s'ster?"

"Sh-She's..She's out."

Jack quickly crawled over Tuhina and pushed her hair from her face. He checked her pulse and her vitals before he dropped his head on her tiny puffy coat gently.

"She's okay," he sighed. "She's okay, don't worry. Just asleep...and that might work better for us to get her away."

Jack then looked back at the church and saw three of the Nightmares start to trickle out of the church.

He gritted his teeth.

"...But not _yet._"

One of them was still swinging his chain with a bludgeon attached to the end of it and another was slamming his fists together. The last was twirling two steel pipes in his hands.

As they stood unmoving for a second at the foot of the church, Jack got up slowly, his tinnitus all but disappeared. He saw their getaway car in the distance up the road ready to take Tuhina to the dock. It made him flex his fingers and as the wind picked up, Tooth squinted past her pained eyes.

All she saw were Jack's boots kicking up snow before he moved away.

As her mouth fell open fearfully, he'd moved away like a phantom with the wind and ice blurring his walk. The adrenaline in his body started to rise and his heart pounded violently, but he drank it in and let the frigid winter air curl in and around his body, waking up his gene and bristling his skin.

Suddenly it was like every step he made as he sauntered back to the church grew more powerful. Jack's core was burning as an indomitable breeze built up at his hands and blew a force faster and louder than anyone could prepare for.

Tooth bent her head low to the ground with Tuhina under her until she was practically laying face first in the snow as the winds Jack created behind him nearly blew her away. The Nightmares suddenly began to advance more quickly, ready to meet him at the middle...but Jack wasn't waiting.

"_Careful boys,"_ he seethed as they began move into a unified walk toward him. _"You don't want Jack Frost nipping at your nose."_

Then grinding his teeth from the sheer force of the gene igniting in his veins, his walk became a run and with every footfall, he made a powerful shockwave.

Just like he did in Moscow...suddenly unshakable, invincible, and superbly indestructible.

The hard wind sent the snow and dirt at his feet flying up and leaving crate holes as he gained speed and commanded the cold wind behind him like a hurricane backing him up. His bangs flew up and his tight brown leather jacket was unclipped by the weather, giving him smoothest streamline he needed against the air.

The wind and snow were so thick and high behind that the Nightmares thought they were trapped in a snowstorm. Then just as they started to run and were trying to cover the distance between themselves and the brunette, Jack sprinted and jumped...and using the wind as his propeller, he became airborne for the last twenty feet.

They craned their necks up at the last second to watch his dark figure leap toward them. He was too fast for them to react to though and with a quick snap of his elongated staff, Jack gave a dark grin.

Then he tucked into a tight roll and as he slammed on the ground before them, he smacked his staff on the dirt and used the conduit to unleash a powerful burst of wind toward them. The repercussion of air he created sent them flying back into the church until they grappled at what they could or braced themselves as they skidded back on their feet.

But looking down, they also realised, as the wind followed, ice started to cover the tiles and frost over around the door.

Jack's dark silhouette appeared in the blurred storm outside, coming for them with a confident stride and a thrill for the fight.

...

Tooth clenched down on her jaw as the cold seeped into her bones.

She waited it out as the violent winds threatened to knock her over but she didn't dare lift her head or call Jack's name. All this chaos was his creation and she knew he was more than capable of fighting three Nightmares on his own.

Still, it was in her nature, and in her heart to worry.

Once the howling finally stopped, Tooth lifted her head cautiously and gaped.

Jack and the Nightmares were nowhere in sight and the ground before her was leveled with visible dirt spots. She lifted her gaze and rubbed her forehead.

All she could think about was his gunshot wound and the fear that the other Nightmares had more guns. Bullets could fly faster than any strip of air he could control, and he'd dropped his own on the ground for those two dead bastards so what could she–

Her heart throbbed in her chest.

After a loud _BOOM!_ was heard, she heard nothing except for the high winds blowing off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. There were no gunshots going off (thank goodness), but there weren't any shouts or bangs either. So what if he really _was _in trouble?

Toothiana looked down quickly at her sleeping sister.

Then, she took a deep breath.

She picked up Tuhina and carried her with a huff and a stitch in her side a few more metres away until she spotted a large rock big enough to hide a ten-year-old. Kneeling behind it, she placed the little handmaiden there and took off Jack's hoodie. She then bundled her little sister in it with the large hood shielding her face and the blue from the sweater covering the bright red from her puffy coat.

She took Tuhina's toque and stretched the wool over her head, pushing her blonde hair under the hat.

Then with a quivering lip, she brushed the girl's hair out of her face and kissed her forehead.

"I'll be back, nong (little sister). I promise...I promise, _okay?"_ she whispered urgently. Then she made sure Tuhina was virtually invisible on the other side of the stone and proceeded to get up and sprint back into the church.

The old her, the one who was inexperienced and afraid of making mistakes would've stayed with her terrified sister and waited it out without any other options that didn't involve running for miles and miles. But the new Tooth, the one who had a fire in heart and a mission on her mind, knew she would do no one justice if she hid like a coward and didn't aid everyone in any way she could.

Besides, she could fight now, she cared about Jack...and she remembered that she took the other Nightmare's gun earlier! So after she checked the rounds, she realized it had more than _twelve_ bullets still in place! More than enough for her, and Jack, if she could get to the church in time.

Once she returned to structure, she dove quickly to one side and skidded under one of the windows to peek inside. As she did, she caught Jack through the dirty, frosted covered window, still in the fight of his life.

...

Jack holding his own against a tag-team combo from two of the Nightmares, one of which had two sticks to parry his own.

He was trying to counterattack every kick and punch they threw with cold efficiency, and neutralizing every vulnerable body part he could hit before dashing out of the away with the help of the wind. He put everything he learned from kendo and krav maga into his eyes and hands, and everything from tae kwon do and ninjustsu into his legs and feet, but he didn't want to stay in the fight too long. With an insuperable breeze, he threw one of their tag-team moves off course before he rushed in with a powerful punch to the side of one of the Nightmare's heads.

As he backed away though, Jack's senses told him to throw his head back and when he did, that small bludgeon attached to the long chain flew right where his head had been. When he pulled up and flipped sideways with the burst of wind to extend his distance, Jack dropped into a low crouch and held his staff in a defensive stance.

The third Nightmare smirked under his neckerchief, then twirled his chain and threw it again. Jack timed the angle and speed to twist his body away, ensnaring the bludgeon with his staff before he extended out the hook and tossed the violent weapon back.

Tooth was in awe as she watched him fight and lift his arms, move his feet, and twist his body around. The second Nightmare finished recovering and came at him with a stick of his own but he sprung into action, that's when the violent bursts of wind and booms started again.

If it was match, Tooth knew she would be his biggest cheerleader.

It was incredible! She knew Jack was flexible and had near-perfect precision when he landed strikes, but there was something about the way she watched him move _now_ that was looked more fluid. As she blinked and her mouth fell open slightly, she realised as she watched him perform a two front flips on the church and twist a Nightmare sideways that maybe he really _did_ remember everything he'd learned as a combatant. He'd never fought like that before, so quick that she could barely spot, but leaving more destruction than she'd ever seen.

It was his renewed call to the wind and she knew it...but she also knew he'd need more. So thinking fast, she looked down and spotted several bricks lying around from the deterioration of the old church.

"Bingo!"

She reached for one quickly, and with a quick toss up in air, Tooth smirked. Aiming each right, and getting ready to run once the bricks were thrown, Tooth picked several more small pieces in one hand and one large one in another. After this, she might be recognized by the Nightmares for the first time since they hadn't recognized her in the snow.

_"Sorry, church!"_ she whispered fretfully before she swallowed her guilt and narrowed her pink eyes.

Then with a sharp inhale, she tossed the heaviest brick through one of the windows and dashed away.

...

_CRASH!_

Jack and the Nightmares strained their ears instinctively when the sound of shattered glass echoed around the church. Jack saw the brick fly through the broken glass ahead of him and rain shards down on the floor, but the Nightmares had to turn slightly to see what was happening.

In their mild distraction, Jack drove his staff in the ground the swung himself into a sweeping crescent kick. When he knocked two of them off their feet, he grabbed the last one around the neck flipped him sideways.

Soon, several more windows were broken through and the high winds outside danced their way through the tiny holes, ready to play, ready to aid Jack.

And he couldn't be happier. With a mischievous grin, he used his staff to channel all the cold air toward him.

The Nightmares tried recovering as the howling from the torrents grew heavier and more vicious. And when Jack jumped slightly and sent them all a few feet back with a burst of air at their guts, they couldn't hear each other through their complinks.

"Requesting ba–_chzzz_–have a g–_chzzzzz–_"

_Bang! Bang!_

Suddenly, two shots went off (getting one Nightmare in the shoulder) and a brick knocked another one in the forehead.

Tooth entered through the church door with a hat on her head and debris in her hand.

Jack shot her an alarmed look before melted into a slight smile.

"What took you so long?" he said and she rolled her eyes.

"You couldn't just give me one damn minute, _Admiral!?"_ she huffed and Jack scoffed.

"Please Tooth," he muttered haughtily. "Not in front of the Klingons."

Her mouth fell open slightly again as she reached his side, but he cut her off.

"Where's–"

"_Safe._ But now I have to save you–"

Just as the two more Nightmares appeared and tried to surround them with the recovering three. Then it was six against two.

When they lunged though, Jack was ready.

"Three!" he cried and Tooth immediately reacted.

She snapped into gun position #3 and shot at the Nightmare coming at her on the right as Jack stood over her guiding a powerful sweep to push them back. He had to make sure Tooth was untouchable, but he scowled as he blew them away.

None of the Nightmares (including the two new ones) weren't wielding any guns.

Except for the Nightmares Tooth shot in the shoulder and the first two she killed, the others hadn't realised just how dangerous 'potential threat' was. Tuhina had vanished thanks to Tooth's discretion, Jack's winds cutoff their communication with the ship and any other Nightmare like an act of nature.

It pumped Jack up, calculating the odds in his favour and raising his confidence.

"Hey, ugly!" he pointed at one of the new Nightmares with his staff. He was wearing one of the old model gas masks with a long tube for oxygen and his face looked inhuman behind it.

The operative glared. _"You wanna piece of me?"_

_"Jack!"_ Tooth hissed as the Nightmare stopped to assess them and her shooting ceased for the time being to wait for their next move. Tech, combat, or whatever they were going to through at her, she was ready. "You're gonna _start_ something!"

"Too late for that," Jack said until a dark grin came on his face. "But let's bring this place down anyway."

And they both moved into action with bullets firing and feet moving like cats.

Jack and Tooth weaved in and out of each other swiftly. She made it her mission to draw pursuers to her only when Jack had an opening so she could make them chase her into his path; then as he fought them with quick and violent precision, she skipped around while throwing bricks back to throw off their dexterity or deflecting her own assaults. Soon, it was Tooth landing on the ball of her feet near the brunette and sidestepping in an outward circular motion to survey her surroundings, while Jack was finishing a low roundhouse on one Nightmare before he backflipped to another. When he landed, he propelled the cold air like a windmill with his spinning feet.

Once Jack regained his footing, Tooth watched him lift his head quickly, his eyes shining and his smirk apparent on his face as he edged close to right side of the church. With a laugh, Jack closed his twitchy fingers into a tight fist around his staff and swung the head forward, as a huge gust of wind plowed through the window. Tooth backed away.

When she turned though, one of the Nightmare suddenly came at her, reaching out to grab her–

–but she threw her arms up instinctively, she deflected his attack.

He stumbled back in mild shock. The guy hadn't expected someone so tiny to throw him off!

But Tooth didn't wait and once she tightened her glove in a small fist, she threw all her force into a strike at his throat – the least most protected part of the body even in a Nightmare uniform. As he coughed and sputtered, she glared darkly at him.

"Not today, you son of a _bitch,"_ Tooth hissed and whipped one of the pieces of brick she was holding at his gas mask, cracking the goggle lens.

Then she dashed away, flying around the battlefield and covering Jack's ass.

...

Meanwhile, Jack was proving without a doubt that all his knowledge of his martial arts was back and his Center gene was at its full potential again.

The Burgess-born brunette delivered a violent punch combo and leapt up with the wind at his heels to grapple the Nightmare with the chain. Next, he wrapped the chain around the latter's neck and tightened it before he performed a side aerial flip and used the midair suspension to aim and toss two knives at two other Nightmares trying to come at him in both directions. When he landed, Jack then plowed immediately for the wall ahead of him and used the two-step to give him enough drive for a high roundhouse at the fourth-coming Nightmare.

Pitch's underling blocked it deftly and reached out, grabbing Jack's torso and throwing him savagely to the ground. But as the ground came close, the wind gave a short burst of air under his back and cushioned his fall so he could brace his palms and tuck his feet under him to snap back out. Once he did, the man flew off him.

As he hit the floor several metres away (thanks to the wind), Tooth momentarily caught Jack lunge after him with a small blade. His staff was shortened in the his waist belt, since he needed two hands for what he was about to do, but she didn't want to watch the horrific kill.

She bit her lip, keeping her eyes wary of the other Nightmares.

That's when she noticed something on the ground ahead of her.

Toothiana spotted saw Jack's rifle, the one he'd been forced to drop on the ground earlier, lying a few feet away from her. It was also directly in Jack's path.

Jack's gun carried more than her five-round rifle and with her new one running out, she needed to use it sparingly. So if she could race to it fast enough, then she could grab it, toss it to him and this fight would end sooner.

So she ran.

But as Tooth neared it, the path was blocked by two of the mercenaries she and Jack had injured.

"Shit!"

She jumped and fell into a roll to gain more distance before running in Jack's direction instead.

...

As Jack ripped his blade from the Nightmare's jugular vein, he sensed non-threatening movement on behind him and spun.

When dark, and blonde, feathery hair filled his vision and he opened his mouth.

"COME AT ME!" he shouted and Toothiana instantly felt her boots pick up speed as she sprinted for him in the short clear path. She wasn't what to expect as she caught his eyes. Something like powerful energy and adrenaline was rising the closer she came, but she trusted the sensation, and him...as she always did.

Once Tooth got to him, she reached out and grabbed his hand. As she did, Tooth instinctively jumped too when she felt the air shift behind her.

Just as her feet left the earth, she narrowly avoided the _smash!_ of the ELF's bludgeon on the ground. How he'd gotten out of Jack's impossible knot was unknown, but the chain was shorter as he recoiled it back so he must have broken the length of it. The two didn't have time to ponder on it though.

As she closed distance with him and he bent his knees slightly, Jack gave her a hard look then putting his hands under her tucked feet, he catapulted her straight up into the air with the wind.

Tooth flew up about twenty feet and gasped at the speed but she narrowed her eyes bravely. Unafraid of the height, she pulled out the dead Nightmare's gun and as the Nightmares momentarily watched her, she zeroed in on all them and pulled the trigger, getting the one with the chain right between the eyes before gravity reclaimed her and another in the foot.

Down below, as the Nightmares reacted, Jack sent a butterfly kick and a powerful straight (backed by the strength of the wind) to knock one of the Nightmares away before a knife zipped up past his vision. Trusting the wind, he glared over his shoulder and snapped his wrist out to guide a quick but powerful torrent to block the Nightmares' weapon from hitting Tooth. Then he released a powerful burst of air at the remaining two still surrounding him. In a flourish of ice, Jack created another shockwave that blew them all back (including his discarded gun) against the walls.

"You guys are the _worst_," Jack taunted with a dark snicker. _"My grandmother could fight better than you."_

As their goggles frosted over with ice, Jack looked up just in time catch Tooth in his arms.

"I've got you!" he said before he let her feet touched the ground.

"Thanks!"

Tooth then moved out of his hold and moved away to create space between them without him telling her to. Without a word, as Jack smirked at her quickly, she tossed him the Nightmare's gun but–

"Jack, look out!"

He didn't have time to turn and lift his arm to guard when the hitman he'd hit with the butterfly kick was suddenly back in his face...with a thick pipe.

_BAM!_

Jack's entire vision turned white for a second and a searing pain erupted on one side of his head as he keeled back in pain. It sent him rolling onto the ground for several seconds, but it was enough for the wind to die down.

The Nightmares swiftly split themselves up between each party.

...

Jack held his head and grit his teeth,

He shook the stars out of his eyes. But even as he got drop kicked in the stomach, a smirk was still on his face, his strength still intact.

"Heh, you shouldn't have done that."

And a second later, the Nightmare got a low roundhouse and a violent burst of wind throwing him back.

Jack coughed out a chuckle, but Tooth eyed him worriedly where she'd darted away to. She wanted to call out his name but she had problems of her own.

Carrying whatever she could grab, the other two remaining Nightmares chased after the princess fervently. It was getting ridiculous to them that in such a small one-room structure, they were losing to some skinny jackass and a toque-wearing, fairy-sized woman who kept pelting them with rocks.

Maybe it was better that they hit him where it would _really _hurt.

Several times, she had to avoid getting caught by the skin of her teeth and was thankful to Jack for every dizzying circle and side-step she seemed to float and zip away with. As she dodged them, Tooth threw bricks at their heads too but they slowly started to gain speed on her.

"Jack!" she cried and a second later, he was running straight for her from the other end of the church, with his staff ready on the offensive. His dark grin was on his face again but Tooth didn't have time to appreciate it as she sped past him.

"Where's your sense of fun?" he laughed then he threw his staff out and the Nightmares parried it off with their arms before they pulled out the last of their knives. But jumping away to avoid their wipes, Jack used the wall to jump around them and throw his rod at the ground with a powerful yell. He released another cold shockwave, mixed with the powerful wind and drop in temperature, knocking them to their feet.

The other two Nightmares stopped to stare, watching the ice and wind paint the church floor like hard salt spilling on the ground.

When Jack flit his eyes their way again, Tooth's subconscious suddenly screamed at her to move.

With a quick bolt to the right, she avoided Jack's attack as he pushed a gust of wind where she previously stood to hit the Nightmares behind her to knock them out too. As they flew away like dolls, Jack laughed under his breath.

She bit her lip frustratingly and tried to move into his line of vision.

_"Jack!"_ she whispered desperately. "Okay, we get it! You're strong again and you're kicking ass, but come on! _Please! _We need to get Tu–"

_BOOM!_

He didn't hear the rest as Jack's attention was suddenly refocused on the Nightmares getting up from the ground as they recovered. He flexed his fingers and rushed forward.

As he ran to the centre of the church, the Nightmares eyed him angrily. That little brown-haired shit was knocking them all down no problem and he hadn't even got a cut yet!

"You guys tired? Come on, boys!" Jack taunted them with a sneer and brought all the attention on him. He stood in the middle and spread his arms out.

"Have a little_ fun._"

And feeling all their anger rising and their pissed expression flare up, they each forgot about Tooth and decided to go after Jack instead. With their were egos sorely bruised and their responsibilities outweighed by their pride, they decided to go after _him_ in a four-against-one fight.

Tooth's eyes bugged out and her blood ran cold.

"Jack! No!" she cried, desperate and angry as she tried to get his attention, but she already lost him to the Nightmares that were lunging themselves at him.

Once they swarmed him like horrible flies, she panicked.

It seemed that while Jack was effectively showing off his skill and strength and was doing one helluva job at it, it...it also seemed to her like he was _playing_ with the Nightmares!

But he couldn't show off, _not now! _Not when they had work to do!

Tooth gripped her head for a moment and clutched the bricks tightly in her hand before she had to avoid a dark body coming her way again.

She gritted her teeth as Nightmares, weapons, and bursts of powerful wind kept flying in her direction as Jack fought them.

_'Fine! I can at least help the idiot so we can get out faster.'_

But the second they were safe again and away from the Nightmares, she and Jack were going to have a _long_ talk about his moronic idea of fun.

Tooth shot the last of her rounds and tried to throw rocks at the men's heads as she ducked and moved around. It was hard though when they kept moving like Jack (and the only spots she seemed to hit in their dashes were their bulletproof vests).

When she missed a second time, Tooth growled under her breath and took a moment to assess her surroundings.

Flitting her pink eyes around, Tooth looked for an opening. Maybe if Jack saw her, he'd remember that he was on a mission, and not in a sparring match.

With a short gasp of air, she found an opening and ran straight through leveling her gun down as she looked for Nightmares to shoot in the face. And after effectively blocked a Nightmare who tried to pounce on her and hitting him in the side of the head, she knocked him sideways and rushed forward to get Jack's attention.

"Jack!"

Jack twisted his staff around Nightmare brought him down under him before he shortened it.

In the blink of an eye though, he slid under a Nightmare, grabbed his zipline cord from his waistbelt and pulled it behind and around to ensnare another Nightmare around the neck with it and drag him down. Jack then threw a knee strike into the man's head and before he twisted the black rope the briefly to block a punch combo. He followed with a front kick at the Nightmare ahead of him.

_"Jack!"_

She saw the brown leather of his sleeve and the taut muscle exercising force underneath it as she broke through a tiny gap in the moving fight.

Jack whipped out his staff again.

Her mouth opened just as he spun around.

"JA–" And Jack swung back around with the black rod with a side sweep, sending the wind in a powerful slice...and hit Tooth directly in the stomach.

As the air hurtled her and another hitman back, Toothiana shouted in shock and pain.

But the damage was done.

She slammed right into another Nightmare.

When the mercenary caught her, Tooth screamed and Jack's smirk slipped off his face when he realised what he'd done. His blue eyes grew wide and his mouth was wide with terror.

"NO!" he yelled and rushed after her, but the other two Nightmares swarmed him and blocked his path.

As he tried to blow them all aside and jump away though, his mind was unfocused and his fingers twitched sporadically, making the wind turn on and off with his frazzled actions.

...

Tooth thrashed around and gritted her teeth.

She threw the last of the rocks she had back to bash him in the head. She even fired the last of her bullets behind her! But when she tried to get away, he reached out, twisting her wrist free of the gun and he grabbed her hair.

_"Gyaah!" _she wailed.

Yanking her back, he gripped her throat from behind and picked her up her small form.

A second Nightmare (the one who got hit by Jack's powerful blast with her) swooped in too to grab her legs and helped haul her up. Tooth's heart pounded fearfully as she felt their grips tighten and all her peace and clarity shatter like ice. She gasped wildly and tried to thrash her head around, trying to find Jack and blink repeatedly.

When she did though, she somehow found herself looking through Tuhina's eyes.

**"Toothie?...T-_Toothie?!"_**

There was snow shifting under her feet as she shuffled around the rock. The eyes stung and blurred with tears and heavy gasps were heard.

**"TOOOTH!" **Tuhina screamed. She choked on her sobs and shuffled more through the wind and snow, alone. **"TOOTHIEEE!"**

Then it was like it didn't matter...because as Tooth pulled away from the link, she watched the girl get picked up violently by another Nightmare.

Tooth choked.

Couldn't breathe.

And her heart fell into her stomach.

"J-_JAAACK!_" she screamed brokenheartedly.

But by then, the two carrying her had already jumped out a broken window.

...

"NOO!"

With a violent kick combo, powerful elbow strike, and immense burst of wind, Jack showered the last of the Nightmares away with frozen water vapour and sprinted for the window with the wind speeding at his heels. But when he was close, a new onslaught of Nightmares appeared.

Jack leaped into a curved side jump with the wind and surfed it to avoid them their lunged attacks.

They looked like arch-level Nightmares and as he landed next to a recovering Nightmare...and he realised they were also carrying guns.

It looked like the call really _had_ taken too long...and now they knew why.

Jack's heart was going into mini palpitation and he almost couldn't get the wind back as he looked around the room for a moment. His mouth hung open, desperate and ashamed then suddenly, the sound of five or so guns clicking off their safety locks went off and he instinctively reacted.

Just as Jack dove behind the recovering Nightmare on his right and gripped the back of the man's uniform, just as a barrage of bullets were fired his away.

"NO...**_NO!"_**

The body of the Nightmare jerked violently under his hold and he knew the bullets would hit him too if he didn't think fast.

But how could he! Tooth was just taken because of _him_ and he–

Jack started to stumble back against the shower of gunshots.

As his feet shifted unsteadily and his knees slightly buckled under the weight of the dying Nightmare he was holding, he gritted his teeth and looked back. He shortened his rod still in his left hand as he did. But even as his mind went into overdrive with his heart, Jack was near unfocused and he felt his skin bristle. His Center gene crackled with high anxiety.

He was at a loss. But he needed to get out. He needed to _get out!_

Jack immediately craned his behind him and saw a window from the church leveled at his height. But damn it all to hell, it wasn't the same window that Tooth had been taken through!

Still, even as he kept backing up and shielding himself, Jack knew he couldn't exit any other way now. He'd only get attacked by Nightmares.

"WHO'S HAVING FUN NOW?! EH, _JACK?!"_ the last surviving Nightmare he'd injured roared as the arch-level Nightmares advanced on him, their fingers trigger happy.

As they fired brutally, the Nightmare lit a flare and torched the church, so no one would come after them again.

Any second now, they'd land on him...any second now, the beautiful, lonely church would be up in flames...any second now, the Nightmare's body (which was already dripping blood on him from behind) would break through and the bullets would hit him anyway.

And with a cry of anguish–

**_"AHHH!"_**

Jack tightened his grip on the Nightmare until his knuckles turned ghostly white and made a violent jerk backwards.

He tossed himself and the Nightmare through the glass of the window behind him.

But what was expected to be the ground like the other three sides of the church, was just empty space. Jack found himself and the Nightmare's corpse hurtling several hundred feet down the cliff of the coast and into the murky waters of the Atlantic Ocean below.

The wind whipped his bangs and he craned his neck to look under him. Luckily there were no rocks below, the water was clear of debris and splashed against the coastal wall...but it also meant that he lost his chance at getting back to the church.

And as he was close to hitting the waters, the orange light from the church's flames lit the water.

Then Jack plunged into the ocean with a violent splash.

...

Once he hit the water, the Nightmares gazed through the broken window and stared down at the water with their goggles.

They fired the last of their bullets into the water even though it was pointless with the distance. Next, they switched to their thermal lenses and tried to find his body heat signature to see if he was still alive.

But it proved moot.

The water was already sub-zero and unbeknownst to them, Jack's body temperature was already naturally lower than most people so he came up virtually invisible on their scanners...or in their case, dead.

"Skinny _bastard,"_ one the Nightmares grit and pulling down his mask a little, he threw a spit down at where Jack's body was presumed to be.

Then they all left the burning church, already bored and unimpressed by the fight, and ready to go back on duty.

...

Meanwhile, Jack was holding his breath.

He squinted up through the orange light on the surface of the water and watched the bullets sink around him. When they stopped, he immediately choked a little under his breath.

He knew had to get out of the water fast before he body started to slow down from the frigid cold of the water. So squeezing his eyes shut briefly, he regulated his heartbeat then spun the dead Nightmare in his grip.

Once the Nightmare was facing him, floating directly above his eyes, Jack quickly unmasked his mouth. He then pulled his mouth to his.

Jack sucked out any of the remaining warm oxygen left in the man's lungs and filled his own. Then with an angry shove, Jack moved away from the corpse and swam to the left, trusting his gut feeling and swimming like hell.

_Thirty seconds and 50m later_

Jack gasped as he head broke the water's surface, gasping for air as he floated and looked around desperately.

When he looked ahead, he saw he was close to a slope that came down from the cliff to meet the ocean. It looked like a giant part of it had broken off and sunk recently and he realised that maybe the church _hadn't_ always been sitting on the very edge of the cliff but that maybe _that_ was why it had been abandoned. Still, he couldn't think on it and with a deep shiver and gasp of air, Jack made powerful front crawls and breaststrokes to the slope, pushing the wind to decrease drag from his soaking heavy clothes.

He grabbed onto a giant rock near the slope (the only thing high enough to climb and reach it), then heaved himself onto it. As he clawing at it, he froze his hand over slightly with ice so that he wouldn't lose his grip on the slippery stone. Then he hauled himself onto it and with a desperate breath, Jack jumped the short height for the slope with his last ounce of energy that wasn't taken by the frigid waters.

Once he collapsed onto the wet dirt and soggy grass untouched by the snow so close to the ocean, Jack braced himself on his shaking hands and gasped for cold air.

His hair was dripping wet and his bangs clung to his forehead, but when he turned his head to the ocean, his heart nearly gave out.

Far in the distance, he saw a black vessel already pointing its bow towards the east.

But it was unanchored and was already starting to sail away.

As he continued to stare at it, he felt sick.

He grew scared.

And when his short gasping turned into choking–

Jack pulled his head up, eyes stinging, and he reached a hand out to the ocean.

**"TOOTHI_ANAAA!"_**

He screamed until his throat was raw and the last of the warm air left his lungs.

At the end of his stamina, two black jets suddenly appeared below the cloud cover and ahead of the ship.

With loud _VOOM, e_ach carried one of the sisters in an emergency pickup...then they sped off, leaving Jack behind.

...

_Somewhere in Europe_

The touchscreen projection lit up with an incoming call. The voice on the other end was exhausted, but boastful.

"Pitch...we have done it."

_Fifteen minutes later_

The malevolent industrial terrorist walked in silently with his hands behind his back. His face was unreadable, a blank slate for once.

He also had four arch-level Nightmares in full uniform stalking behind him, phantasmal and ghoulish.

The scientists said nothing as the Englishman glided in without a breath of noise or disruption, his slicked hair and strong jawline rigid with apprehension. After he picked up a chart, flipped through it aimlessly (already aware of all the chemical compounds and work in his own head), he tossed it back onto the metal desk with a loud clatter.

"Well?" he spoke slow and dark.

And the scientists wasted no time. Gripping one end of each of the white curtain, two of the male bio-violators pulled the covers apart to show the products of their success.

When Pitch flit his grey-yellowing eyes back and forth, a light shone in them, giving his darkened expression a wiry expression.

"We have successfully found the ingredient that stimulates the Center gene in the clones," one of the men finally spoke.

And when Pitch looked between the four girls, he read their bed charts and looked at their physical appearances.

**TOOTH #6  
**_Zingerone, Ginger_**  
**

Tulia's mutation was the worst, the one that made her sisters scream earlier that day. The twelve-year-old had tiny featherlike sprouts sitting at the crown of her forehead that were bandaged at the skin where blood had broken through. Her skin was also purpled along her neck and it was apparent that she been in a coma since they'd administered the chemical.

But for all her mutations and biological inputs and responses, the ingredient, her injected chemical compound...was a failure.

**TOOTH #4  
**_Crocin, Saffron_**  
**

Theena, the newest to arrive had the worst topical case. Her skin was blotchy with purpling spots on her skin and her hair was thinning out as it started to turn a strange colour.**  
**

Compound success: Failure.

**TOOTH #3  
**

_Helichrysum, Perennial__  
_

Then there was Tiana. The thirteen-year-old was running a hot fever, sweat coursing down her face and her skin looking gaunt and hollow. But she was otherwise fine, although she kept whining in pain every now and then.

Compound success: Failure.

**TOOTH #2  
**_Eugenol, Cinnamon_

Next was the second eldest handmaiden. Fifteen-year-old Tia every now and then her blood temperature would decrease and when the monitor went off, the scientists had to drop a heated blanket on her to make sure her heart didn't slow down. But the skin around the crown of her head was starting to sprout something too, like Theena's.

Compound success: Failure.

"Bloody _shame,"_ Pitch sighed with boredom.

It seemed for the last 48 hours, all four girls had developed some horrible effects from the essential oils they'd been planted with thanks to their Center genes.

On the bright side for Pitch though, it meant that whenever a Center gene carrier didn't obey him, he knew exactly what to give them to make them suffer. But since the clones' genes were embedded into their DNAs (having been born with them instead of been injected with thanks to their princess), it also meant he couldn't rupture their biology and kill them. They'd only be in pain but at least they wouldn't die like all the other Center gene carriers he'd kidnapped. All these ingredients would be his tool in the end, but still...

Then he finally turned his head to the last girl.

**TOOTH #1**

Tatiana, or the _original _Baby Tooth that she was most deemed, was sound asleep with her levels normal and her heart rate regulated. She wasn't mutated and when his eyes checked her charts, he actually paused for a breadth of a second.

Because it seemed that Tatiana's levels were...actually getting stronger.

As she slept, it was apparent that her muscle regeneration was increasingly picking up and her red and white blood cells were multiplying at a healthier rate. Her brain oxygen level was high and when he looked down with keen eyes, the part of the bed she was holding was actually crushing slightly under her tiny fist. She _was _getting stronger, she _was._ He finally had the chemical ingredient that stimulated growth and protection of the Center gene instead of deterring it...and when he read the compound, the one the scientists had deemed successful, he knew why.

_Menthol._

...Or to rest of the non-chemical world: Peppermint.

A corner of his lip twitched.

"What did you use to activate it?" he asked, keeping his golden gaze fixated on the larger handmaiden as she continued to lay unconscious next to her sisters.

He wanted to celebrate and twist all their necks around at the same time.

The scientists looked down at her as well with grim but otherwise stark faces, still focused on their work.

"An oil extract," one answered him. "Straight from the plant itself...The gene responded to the highest concentration we could administer. But even _then_ it's potency is dangerous for any _one_ person, but that was it. That's the Center gene's activator."

Pitch's wicked smile suddenly appeared as he tilted his head slightly upward. A dark chuckle threatened to escape from his lean chest and past his lips.

But he shut his eyes instead.

"Sabon?" he addressed the lead scientist and the older, disturbed man looked at him. Pitch then turned his head slightly.

"Tell me...What is Punjam Hy Loo's main export again?"

Sabon didn't miss a beat.

"Mm, peppermint,_ is it not?"_

And the second the silence dropped after his answer, Pitch opened his eyes to stare at the poor dears all unconscious in their beds. His teeth showed in a Cheshire cat grin.

_"_Precisely."

And the shadows stretched around the room with dark glee.

_"Now what would be the odds of that?"_

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "ShutEmDown" – Celldweller **(the official Nightmare track)**

**This chapter hurts me. When I picture Tuhina crying, I imagine little Mako Mori from Pacific Rim (that movie!). Like it hurts guys. I hope you guys survived this heavily fight-based chapter. It was a whammy, but now we must say goodbye to the blue/pink underarcs...for now ): Next chapter will be called 'Kneeling At Hell's Door' and hopefully, it'll be up sooner because it's short. And sophsiri, dat Star Trek reference was all you, girl! (;**


	38. If I Should I Die Before I Wake

**Oh, it's come to my attention that I never mentioned what gun Jack carries after leaving Wales! Haha sorry guys. Jack carried a Smith & Wesson M&P Pro Series C.O.R.E. It's got a great polymer grip handle for fast-moving combat IMO (perfect for his agility). I would've gone with a J-framed gun since they're easier to hold but, the models look funny and I think he'd look more badass with an actual platform-ready firearm.**

**Happy scrolling! Not short, nevermind lol. ****There are many symptoms of fear...can you spot them all?**

* * *

"Report?"

"Two more have been successfully picked up."

"Heh, and try to guess which one was hiding under her hat."

That's what the Nightmares said as they walked down the hall. They were brisk and silent, except for the occasional beep or hissing noise from their gas masks.

Two floors and twenty feet below their combat boots and impious smirks–

"Arghh...H-Hah!"

"N-N...Wh'...No...N-No!"

*sobbing*

"Tooth...T-Toothie, no...No!"

They were all asleep, but writhing and twisting in pain.

Tatiana, Tia, and Tiana's small beds were on the left. Theena, Tuhina, and Tulia's tinier ones were on the right. Two more were still empty.

But in the middle, between both sides, was a larger table made of cold steel and starch linen.

It was ready, but the princess wasn't there.

At least...not yet.

...

_Sub-basements, location unknown, time unknown_

Tooth sat on the floor of steel cage, her left hand manacled to one corner. She was cold but she'd stopped shivering an hour ago. Numb and feeling like a bird locked away, the princess curled into herself in one corner and leaned her head back against the bars. They'd put a respirator over her mouth, the same kind the Nightmares wore as the bottom half of their gas masks.

She squeezed Jack's flower tight in her hands.

She had no more screams left in her throat, and everything she'd tried went unnoticed or unacknowledged by the Nightmares guarding her until they were told to leave. She couldn't get out and their time spent down there was pointless when they could be doing more meaningful things. So they all (except for one on guard at the door) abandoned her...forgot about her...left her shrivel up without her coat, her guns, and her boots. And when she'd finished yelling until her throat was raw and she kicked and scratched the steel, Tooth collapsed and remembered why she was there in the first place.

She then cast a glazed look to her right.

There was a cage sitting beside hers and she couldn't tell if it was clean and brand new too. Tooth also noticed that it had a giant black cloth covering it, because other than the cross breeze drifting through the room that lifted its ends, it didn't sound like anything was hiding underneath it.

Suddenly a breeze drifted though.

When it traced the part of Tooth's cheek that wasn't covered by the black respirator, she felt her heart ache painfully in her ribcage.

* * *

_"I have a new thing that makes me happy," she said with a yawn and Jack quirked a brow curiously after her secured her on his back._

_"Oh yeah? What?"_

_"...The north wind."_

_He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion._

_"Why?"_

_"Because dummy, when it starts to blow...it means you're coming back."_

* * *

She tried to be careful to squish the flower in her hands as Jack's face floated through her head.

The respirator made everything harder to breathe, but she'd heard that sand was being ground up and drifting through the room to cause pulmonary damage.

Why? She had no clue, and it frustrated her to no end.

As a flare passed through her nostrils, she saw a corner of the other cage's cover lift slightly again. It made her nervous, everything in the giant room did. The floor was filthy, and all around her were stacks of crates, wooden planks, and iron contraptions. It reminded her of a warehouse, but she knew she was several feet underground. The air had that distinct earthy, wet stone smell.

Or, maybe it was all the debris lying around her...and that made Toothiana more afraid.

She'd **seen** how 'well looked after' her sisters were been treated through her gene. They were all in sterile rooms with clean beds and people hovering over them every second their eyes opened. But that only sliver of appreciation washed away as quick as it came. For while she wished they'd never be treated the way she was treated, Toothiana also wished that they'd never been treated the way they were at all.

It was _Christmas!_ They were supposed to celebrating.

She inhaled deeply to stop a stray tear from leaking out.

Was it...Was it _even _Christmas anymore?

Tooth felt like she'd been in that cage for days, never mind hours. She was probably awaiting an audience with Pitch...but when?

_'Jack...Don't come,' _she mentally begged. _'Don't come.'_

Because as much as she wanted him to swoop in and kick ass as she liked, she didn't know what would await him if he did. And she didn't want his blood on her hands.

His blood...

_'Don't think like that, Tooth,' _she berated herself. _'Don't you DARE think like that!'_

Jack may have gotten carried away and she could scream bloody murder and beat him senseless for his idiotic clumsiness. But that wasn't her, and she _knew_ that wasn't him. Jack was just overwhelmed. Anyone would have been after the last twenty-four hours he went through. He discovered his true identity, reclaimed his moral compass, found his sister, ate food, regained his body's (and his full gene's) potential and, with her, he'd...

She shut her eyes.

No, she couldn't blame him for being happy. Who could ever be upset with a happy Jack Frost?

She...She just wished he'd handled it a little better.

When her mind was tired of going in circles playing 'It-is-and-isn't-Jack's-fault', she sensed movement.

Tooth peeked through her eyes, feeling her shoulders square up slightly in an aggressive response, in response to her fear. When she looked, the lone Nightmare guarding the only garage-based entrance into the room turned to her. His gas mask was ominous as ever, his yellow-lit goggles and black gas mask hissing and sucking with his inhales and exhales.

She didn't say a word as he fixated his gaze on her until her skin crawled.

When she opened her mouth behind her own respirator, ready to cuss him off in Thai, he moved suddenly, getting an order from Pitch upstairs. Following command, he walked over to the AC controller and dialed down the knob. Almost instantly, the cross-breeze floating through the room stopped.

Pitch didn't want to give her any luxuries.

_'Let dear Thia, warm herself up, shall you?...I'm afraid that's enough of a convenience on her part.'_

But when the breeze died away and her bangs stopped lifting in the invisible touch, Toothiana's lip quivered.

It suddenly felt like Jack wasn't there anymore.

The Nightmare then returned to his post and did nothing, ignoring the loud smack her gave against the bars and the yell she made behind her mask.

Tooth heaved, her chest rising and falling with desperation.

So what, she was supposed to wait and die? _Fuck_ that.

How_ dare_ they keep her down in the filthiest part of the basements. _What_ did they plan on doing with her before slicing her to pieces?

And _why _was that cover on the other cage lifting again!? It was starting to get on her nerv–

Tooth's blood ran cold.

She turned to it slowly on her right, pink eyes wide with fear.

As she looked...the bottom of the cage rustled again, like it did in the breeze.

But...But that was impossible...

The Nightmare had just shut off the AC on Pitch's orders. There _was _no wind in the room, she felt it, or the _lack _of it.

_'So how is it moving on it's own?! Th-There's no vent near these cages...unless...'_

_"_No _shit,"_ Tooth whimpered. _"...It's a ghost."_

The rustling abruptly stopped, but Tooth felt like an air of offense float around suddenly.

She shook her head slightly.

How would she even know what she'd offended? Unless she knew it very well...and something told her...

...something told her, that she did.

The hairs on her neck stood on end.

Suddenly with a brave swallow, Tooth uncurled her unchained hand from her chest and lifted it across her cage. When it reached through the bars, she brushed the top of the cover after a moment of hesitance.

She then poked it, and pulled her hand away like spitfire.

Nothing happened.

At least, for a second.

Then Tooth gasped.

The black cover rustled at the bottom again...before something blew in the same spot she had poked, lifting it slightly from the inside.

She bit her lip. She cautiously reached through and touched the cloth again, quick as the first attempt.

This time, she gave two pokes.

A second later, two rustles answered back. But they looked timid and weak...they reminded her of a child. It made the hairs on the back of her neck raise.

Tooth's eyes grew wide.

"T...Tuhina?" she whispered delicately through the respirator. Her voice sounded slightly different and she grimaced. What if the person (she prayed it _was _ person) under the cage really _was _her sister and couldn't recognize her voice?

She tried again, louder this time.

"T-Tuhina?"

The cover didn't move, and her spirits almost shattered. Until–

_Rustle. Rustle. Rustle._

Toothiana's heart raced. "O-Or...or is it Tiana? T..._Tia?_ B–"

_Rustle...Rustle...Rustle._

She wasted no time.

Feeling brave, Tooth found a courage in her heart to take on whatever was hiding under that cover. She didn't sense something horrible as her gut was usually great at picking up on...She really felt like she could identify who was under there.

And if she was wrong, and it was something horrible beyond her imagination, well...at least there was a Nightmare 20 feet nearby with a semi-automatic.

Tooth spared him a quick glance before she flit her eyes back to the moving cover. The end of the cloth billowed gently like something was trying to blow it, then the speed changed sporadically like it was trying to send morse code to her.

She furrowed her eyebrows.

Curiosity killed the cat. But curiosity also led to her finding out about her birth, her mother, Project GUARDIAN, North, Aster...and Jack.

So with a brave inhale, she reached through the bars again and with a slight grip of the cover, she clenched her teeth, ready for anything.

_'Please...Please be...'_

Then, she yanked it down with all her might.

The entire cover snagged at first until she gave another yank again. Then it slipped down before her, and in a heavy _fwoomp_ the material piled between the two cages...

...and Tooth came face-to-face with someone she'd never thought she'd see.

_"No..._" the Hypunjam princess breathed. She lifted her hand back through the bars desperately. "N-No!"

She stretched as far as she could, her heart racing in her chest, but although her fingers reached far enough to grab the heavy cloth, Tooth wasn't long enough to touch the other cage.

"Pl-Please!" she gasped, scared and agonized. "Reach for me..._R-Reach for me!_"

Nothing worked.

Tooth hiccuped and felt like her arm was about to pop from her arm socket. When she couldn't stretch anymore, her muscles buckled and she dropped her arm on the ground.

"I...I-I..." she couldn't even finish as she dragged her hand back to her cage. She wanted to cover her mouth but the mask prevented her from doing it. So she clenched her teeth instead, tears brimming in her eyes.

His skin had turned pale and sickly from being under the cover of the dark material. For how long she didn't know. And his body was lying sideways on the floor, his cheek pressed to the cold steel. And he was blowing air gently close to the area where Tooth had seen the cover billow and lift slightly. His expression was tired, but the second he pulled his eyes up, the energy returned...but only a portion of what it had once been.

As he looked through the bars that separated them, Tooth curled her shaky fingers onto her chest again.

"..._N-Not you too,"_ she whispered, her lungs shuddered under her dark purple turtleneck.

When she turned her head away slightly, stray tears slipped down her cheeks.

And in the cage a few inches beside her, her caretaker, nanny, and private tutor, Mr. Sanderson, lifted his head slightly.

But he was mute, silent and soundless as he'd always been.

Tooth covered her eyes...and said nothing at all.

...

His entire body was chained to the floor of his cage – feet, neck, back, and wrists. For reasons beyond the princess, it seemed like he was more of a threat somehow to Pitch's assassins.

He and the princess sat like that for close to an hour, with him trying to reach his bars and her silently crying in his presence. And it hurt him to his core, knowing that the little girl he'd basically raised since birth was aware of everything now, even if she didn't anything yet. But it looked like Toothiana didn't want to speak again, and by his shame, she had every right to ignore him.

Because for all his deep-rooted and cherished affections for the beloved princess, he'd lied to her for years.

But being down in the dry and rusty sub-basement of Pitch's facility did not mean Mr. Sandy would lose her, or her hope. He would tell her, he'd tell her everything he could, because even if someone was mad and pretended to ignore him, they always listened. They always listened to stories, because that was a powerful thing...that's what someone once taught him.

Tooth felt more than saw Mr. Sanderson lift his hands and heard the chains from his wrists rattle loudly. She always seemed to sense when he was trying to talk her, even when she was little.

And Mr. Sandy always only wanted to sign unless he wanted her to listen.

Tooth glanced at him with a slight grimace while her bruised cheek and split lip still hurt from proudly fighting the Nightmares twice her size off.

Mr. Sandy's chains clanked loudly as he flexed his fingers gently. He looked so different without his trademark gold night robe that he always seemed to walk around in at the palace.

Then he started.

His tiny, sun-kissed hands (almost the same colour as his golden, spiking, flyaway hair) moved deftly, fingers taking positions of crosses and curls, and the occasional invisible tapping. He held them up firm against the cold, the weakness, and the fear in the large warehouse-like room.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him move his fingers in an inward circle towards each other. They looked like they were trying to link together but always kept missing.

He wanted to tell a story.

But she frowned...because she didn't want to one.

Tooth moved her head sideways.

Quickly, he started to rattle his chains again to get her to stop turning away from him. His round, pious face reflected fear and trouble. Sandy kept trying again, waving his arms and opening his mouth desperately with short breaths of air so she'd hear him. She spared him another glance, easily reading his fingers like he was talking by mouth.

He was apologizing for everything, expressing a hurt and sorry that he would knew would upset him forever. He called her 'Toothie' at the end.

It made her squeeze her eyes shut and leaned her head against the bar.

Whenever Mr. Sandy signed 'tooth' he always lifted his pinkie to emphasize the 'ie' in her nickname. It was his personal touch. But as as much as she wanted to borderline on that feeling of betrayal and anger...she knew she couldn't do it. With Mr. Sandy, it was like hating a rainbow.

And it hurt.

It hurt a lot.

When she shuddered under her breath, he waited noiselessly as his chains hung in suspension. Tooth then opened her pink eyes.

She decided there was only really one to ask.

"..._Why?"_

When he didn't move like she expected, she took a deep breath.

"W-Why Project GUARDIAN, Mr. Sandy?" she finally admitted. "Why you?"

Sandy didn't react, calm and wistful as ever. But underneath his squat stature, his heart stopped in his stoutly, round chest.

Tooth watched him watch _her _with his shining honey brown eyes. She was almost comforted by it.

Until, they flickered gold.

Wait...gold.

_...Gold?_

But weren't his eyes brown just a second ago? They were_ always_ brown, a honey brown that calmed her until she fell asleep.

Tooth didn't move yet, but her mind was racing.

She'd always thought his eyes were just special...but maybe they were more than special. Maybe...

Maybe they'd been genetically altered too, just like hers.

When Sandy demanded her attention and demanded it to _stay_, he didn't say a word a frowned deeply. Eventually she found her lips moving again.

"Y...You _were_ a GUARDIAN."

Sandy did nothing, still breathing deeply through nostrils and his shoulders bristling under his signature gold winter coat and trousers. After a few more minutes to let her completely sink it in, his relaxed his stiff shoulders and lowered his head. There were only two ways to describe what Toothiana felt: bafflement and confusion. She blinked until the pink in her eyes stretched and became a dark magenta near the centre, clouding itself with her emotions.

The man in his late forties blinked back slowly before he lowered his gaze to the front of his coat.

Looking away for a moment to collect her words, she blinked the sting of tears out of her eyes.

'_Don't cry,'_ she told herself. _'You're stronger than this. You're STRONGER than this!'_

But suddenly it was like all she could imagine was the CHOSEN protocol, the one that tricked Jack and Aster into thinking they were going in for a routine checkup, only to get their brains defragmented. She could feel her heart threatening to jump out her chest, like a thousand hummingbirds and a hurricane driving through.

Sandy lifted a hand to get her attention.

But just half of the way there, his fingers abruptly stopped signing. Tooth looked up to figure out why.

Mouth open, her caretaker looked down at his small hands, reliving his memories, more than twenty years old, behind his wide eyes.

* * *

_1 new message  
Sent 11/14/XXXX to: **AG 129 Codename:**_** SANDMAN****  
**_From: The Board_

"Bretyam,

We would like to extend our warmest congratulations to you and your successful transition into the program. We expect great things from you whilst helping us achieve the universal goal of global peace and stability. Best of luck to you in your assigned division(s) and upcoming work in the field. As soon as this message has been received, you will no doubt receive your first mission, but until then, prepare yourself and always remember what we are fighting for."

_'Greenya undovo aeyt remska det ienoveen ana nuaskvo.'_

–The Executive Board Members

* * *

_1 new message  
Sent 11/30/XXXX to: **AG 129 Codename:**_** SANDMAN****  
**_From: The Board_

"Bretyam,

We contact you at your most unfortunate time for which we are deeply saddened. It has come to our attention that the Center gene has rendered you mute. This was not a foreseen affect of the injection but the board wishes to extend out sympathies. Yours is a rare case we must now observe with great attention. As they have most likely assured you in the time this message has reached you, your loss of vocal ability has _not_ been labeled as serious, but rest assured, the SI are doing everything they can to look after and monitor you. Please report to SI and consult with Dr. Lulaby and the other scientists on station for further information unless you have otherwise done so.

We again extend our deepest sympathies to this disability on your otherwise healthy vitals. As well, report to your assigned division for a further follow-up on your change in physiology. Should you be better suited to another class of agents, immediate accommodations will be made."

_'Greenya undovo aeyt remska det ienoveen ana nuaskvo.'_

–The Executive Board Members

* * *

_2 new messages  
Sent 12/05/XXXX to: **AG 129 Codename:**_** SANDMAN****  
**_From: **DI-M  
**_

"Agent Sanderson,

Report to Agent Lycanthrope in Sector T4 at your earliest convenience. And welcome to the _Midnight _division."

–Ichabod Crane, Senior Coordinator of the Midnight Division, Class DI-M

xxx

_Sent 12/09/XXXX to: **AG 129 Codename:**_** SANDMAN****  
**_From: **AG 796 Codename: **_**SANTACLAUS**

"Sandy! _Volt gret havad? (____Луна)_ Where'd you go?) I recently discover that you switch to the _Midnight_ Division? We will miss you over here in _Treasure,_ my friend. Hope to hear from you soon."

–Nic

* * *

_Months pass..._

_1 new message  
Sent 06/17/XXXX to: _**SANDMAN  
**_From: _**SANTACLAUS****  
**

"Friend, how is insomnia? I remember you telling that you used to always fall asleep. But now since Gene has changed you, you never have. Are you taking sleeping pills they prescribe?"

–Nic

* * *

_Eventually years..._

_1 new message  
__Sent 06/17/XXXX to: _**SANDMAN  
**_From: _**SANTACLAUS****  
**

"You miss all fun, Sandy. But I hear talk of great capture by you! Tell, how you always escape?"

–Nic

xxx

_Sent 09/13/XXXX to: _**SANDMAN  
**_From: _**SANTACLAUS****  
**

"Always good to hear from you, friend! How long have we both been GUARDIAN now? 3 years? It is nice to have at least one friend close!"

–Nic

"PS: Also is good that messages are not tracked and deleted. Your secrets are safe with me. How is female agent you are in love with? Hm?"

* * *

_SANDMAN and SANTACLAUS __(or, FATHER XMAS, when he was acting commanding officer to trainees) __remained in contact with each other over the years. __The two were stationed in completely different hemispheres, one North, the other South. But since their first meet in the _Treasure d_ivision twenty-something years prior to the story's beginning, they were friends, closer than most GUARDIANs were_

_And they were very covert about it._

_They had such a friendship that Sandy trusted him with every bit of information he felt was more than necessary to share. He wrote to him (sometimes charading to him when they were both reuniting in person) about his adjustment into his new life as a mute, learning sign language, and the shift into his new division. He told him about new agents, the style of missions they went on, and North shared the same enthusiasm about the adventures he had himself. It was hard at first understanding his old friend but eventually they got past it._

_And as Sandy grew more comfortable in his quieter role as a GUARDIAN, it started to work to his advantage as an agent. North started to hear all his great missions from other agents and how he got in and out of terrorists bunkers without a sound, and disrupting interrogations with such destruction even the board was impressed. They eventually classified him as a Rank A GUARDIAN after several months...the only one to ever hit that was the FAIRYQUEEN. _

_But they were still a fairly new company, only a few years in. And as the size and strength of Project GUARDIAN grew, there'd be more chances for other GUARDIANs to hit that rank._

_But the success of the program was short-lived when the FAIRYQUEEN became pregnant two years into her duty and had to resign in secret. And when she died, Sandy was presumed dead by everyone to the company shortly after. _

_North was devastated...until he got a message some time later._

_..._

_1 new message  
__Sent 08/05/XXXX to: __**AG 796 Codename: **_**SANTACLAUS****  
**_From: _**?****  
**

"S."

...

_And Sandy secretly clued him in, seeking support in his sorrow and loneliness._

_He told North he had been reassigned to protect the baby since it was the first living child__ under 21__ to be born with the Center gene. It was his job to watch over her, and relay her growth and abilities to the company for the next 20 years, until they could decide if the gene was working in her body. So as she and the clone they grew from her stem cells grew up together, he told North that he (alongside with Punjam's Prime Minister, Ty Bangkot) would protect her by pretending to be her private tutor. He had the credentials and smarts to be her teacher when she wasn't in school for four months of the year, but secretly, as the cover was recognised by the company, the portly man and the Russian exchanged secret messages back and forth. He told North everything he could about Toothiana, sending him copies of her baby pictures as she grew each year whilst sending his reports to back to the company._

_Then...twelve years came in the blink of an eye. _

_More and more copies of Toothiana kept arriving at the palace, told that they were going to be the princess' 'handmaidens'. __And as he reached his late thirties, the undercover tutor suddenly felt worried. __When the last clone, Tiati,__ finally arrived __(at age 6; as they always did), __Tooth was already a happy, bubbly seventeen-year old. _

_But __she had eight clones. EIGHT. _

_He could never for the life of him understand why they'd cloned the princess eight times. Once had been immoral enough._

_..._

_1 new message  
Sent 02/26/XXXX to: _**SANDMAN  
**_From: _**SANTACLAUS****  
**

"You are right to worry, friend. I have had sinking feeling since second clone. We must watch this situation very carefully."

–Nic

(_So they did. Right up until she turned twenty...And then everything they feared seemed to just go downhill from there.)_

...

_"Can you believe such fortune?"_

_"It's a miracle...all nine are a miracle."_

_"A gift by the grace of her mother, no doubt."_

_Sandy listened in on the conference calls of medical CEOs of the company. They were each sworn to secrecy against the rest of the board for their knowledge and involvement with the GUARDIAN program. Beyond his loyalties and discretion, in the months drawing near to Princess Toothiana's twenty-first birthday, he grew more apprehensive of the company's actions. _

_They had not told Sandy beyond what was otherwise promised – that her biology would just be monitored as a precaution, being the only person ever in history to be born with the gene, rather than injected it. But in the months he traveled back and forth from Punjam Hy Loo to the main Buffalo base to deliver his annual reports, something about the twitches in the scientists' facial muscles and the stark undertones of the involved board members made him wary._

_"What is the next step?"_

_"Isn't it obvious? The theory was wrong...We really _can_ open up a new avenue."_

_Sandy was so wary, he called Nicolas for extra ears and eyes when he heard the conversation and vanished like a cloud that their sensors could never detect._

_And it was on one fateful October night, that North relayed a message to him from his own covert spying (thanks to his authority over oblivious scientists)._

_..._

_Sent 10/15/XXXX to: _**SANDMAN  
**_From: _**SANTACLAUS****  
**

"Sandy. What you know about something titled 'INNOCENCE'?"

–Nic

...

_The two eventually learned that the 'new avenue' Project GUARDIAN was opening up, thanks to the perceived success of Toothiana's growth (along with her clones), was the creation of a new program...T__he INNOCENCE program._

_It was designed to bring children into the company, by growing the genes in young bodies to see how well they adapted to change. It also involved the potential for children to be the gatekeepers to a new kind of generation...but Sandy knew he couldn't allow it. Hero syndrome or self-righteousness you might call it, but the man always had a soft spot for children (the last lights of hope for a better world, SANTA always called them), and the spot had grown exceptionally large since raising the nine young girls over the last twenty years._

_So he leaked all the information he discovered into ONE folder._

_One folder he listed old cases of children dead from experimentation, and protocols...and the possible recruitment of a little girl whose relative was a GUARDIAN__. But he included nothing about Tooth or her clones. Nothing about her mother. Sandy then made it accessible at the lowest archive and on next of kin records. It wasn't traceable unless someone traced it or recovered the paper, but it was enough to cause a breach in the board's system._

_He hoped it was enough to scare them, to get them to stop before they realised what they were doing._

_But it didn't. _

_And while one agent had already discovered the file, the man related to the girl in the folder, he hadn't exposed them...he'd given himself up to the program. He was a GUARDIAN now for a full year and a half. He was a success._

_"We dodged that bullet," he heard one of them say. Then they decided to continue the INNOCENCE program (without the agent's sister) once Toothiana reached twenty-one._

_And Sandy knew he had to try again._

_So he leaked the file again onto the entire database, the night before the Purge started. He hoped that would be enough, and if it wasn't, well then the other GUARDIANs could start a mutiny once they discovered it. __But as he listened in on their emergency meeting, the concealed microphone he slipped under a board member's lapel told him they weren't scared at all._

_In fact, they were prepared._

_"This company will burn to ashes, you realise?! All our agents are guided by their strong morals, it's why we chose them in the first place!...How do you think they will react when they hear about what has been happening all this time?! How we keep injecting new agents every year when the gene's already kil–"_

_When he abruptly stopped, no one said a word for a long while._

_Sandy thought it was the end of that._

_"This act needs to end. We are not gods...W-We must stop."_

_"...But how?"_

_But as they came to the end of their three-hour debate on the preventive measures to take against the breach, the majority finally concluded that fixing the solution was,_

"_...by wiping out the most valuable intel gathering assets we've ever put in the field."_

_Then the Purge began._

_And Sandy carried that weight on his heart for the rest of his days._

_..._

_Sent 10/15/XXXX to: _**SANDMAN  
**_From: _**SANTACLAUS****  
**

"Sandy. We **die** tonight before Purge starts. Take _everything _and I will destroy the remains. Buddy Phil is regular agent from upstairs. He will give escape route."

–Nic

...

_When North later vanished and setup the ELF organization (after the complete destruction of their company), he took the information he'd stolen from the company about Tooth and her clones information and created cases for each of them as a precaution, until an emergency called for them to be separated across the world so they would never be hunted down._

_And that was the last Sandy ever saw of his friend unless through camera or mail._

_But they, and the ELFs North assembled were like the stars at night watching over Tooth and her sisters, and making sure their secret was dead until the last clone's growth into adulthood was recorded. Then they'd help people (like any lost GUARDIANs, if there _were_ any) by using the new knowledge they'd learned about the Center gene to stop or__ cure__ future mutations._

_That was their wish. A wish that, l__ike all wishes, started out as a dream. _

_And to Sanderson (who lived by the oath of the GUARDIANs, raised Toothiana and the girls, and heard their hopes for their futures), he knew that dreams were a most sacred thing._

* * *

Mr. Sanderson looked up quick but ever-silent.

His mouth and clothes didn't make a sound, but the emotion running through his eyes, across his brown irises was like a storm.

Toothiana frowned and squeezed the flower.

"But what about Mr. Bangkot?" she mumbled sadly. "W-Was he a GUARDIAN? Did he know about the–"

She stopped when Sanderson shook his head. He lifted his hands again to explain.

The Prime Minister had actually been an agent, assigned off duty to watch over her mother when she left the company. But after she died, and he stayed behind to help watch the Tooth with Sandy, the two had formed a friendship based on a protection that stemmed from a loyalty to the girls over the company.

They monitored the girls together in secret...but Ty Bangkot never knew that it had been him who leaked the files.

When Sanderson finished signing the word 'file', his eyebrows knitted together in thought about the dead friend again.

As his years of sorrow started to peel and show, Tooth gulped a large lump in her throat.

"Every GUARDIAN was gone," she spoke sadly while her nanny nodded. "But why didn't you?...W-Why didn't you disappear like the others? Like North?"

Sandy didn't say anything.

After kneeling for so long on his knees, he plopped onto his rear and sat shamefully on the cold steel caged floor. He kept his gaze down for a long time before his forehead creased with deep tension. Tooth knew that was when he put his mind to something and became stubborn about it. She almost missed it, yearning for his kid-like expression in a warmer, much happier place.

Sandy then looked up, cutting off her train of thought. When he lifted his hands to give her his answer she didn't say a word...because it looked like he'd been thinking the same thing.

His fingers then moved, shutting and opening his eyes determinedly as he strung a long string of sign language. But when he was done, Tooth felt her heart overflow with emotion. The symbols were few, but she understood the words beyond normal basic translation.

Princess. Watched over. A baby. Never changing. Love. Protection._  
"Princess...I've watched over you since you were a baby, and that will never change, you understand?  
We are family as we've always been...and I won't stop protecting you."_

Tooth was overwhelmed to the point of gasping for air in such cramped and hellish place.

She wanted to hug him.

Mr. Sanderson she realised was, for all his lies was loving as he'd always been, just like Jack had reminded her...like her uncle(s)...like her father.

No, in retrospect, Sanderson _was _her father, her second father, who although was not always there, was there when needed for her, for all her sisters, and was the embodiment of comfort.

She _really_ wanted to hug him. Especially now since it seemed like her tears were finally threatening to fall again.

When he sensed her shift in emotion, Sandy looked up.

He frowned and tried to get up again. He hobbled on his stout legs to get to the side of the cage closet to her but the chains and the distance was too far.

Tooth instead had to watch him struggle on himself and her tears dripped down her chin.

"I'm sorry I was ever mad," she whispered in shame. "...You were _everything."_

She then achingly reached out as far as she could, stretching her body and her arm (away from where she was chained) to push her fingers through the cage. They didn't get far, but knowing her fingertips could pass the barrier gave Tooth that one bit of comfort.

Sanderson nodded encouragingly, always an expert at reading expressions but then she shuddered a breath and collapsed again.

She looked down at the flower in her lap and bit her lip.

_"I'm sorry, Jack."_

Then Tooth pushed the flower behind her ear. When she looked up again, Sandy was staring at it thoughtfully.

She opened her mouth.

"S-Sir?"

He looked at her again.

"C-Can you...Can you tell me about...m-my mother?"

Sandy's eyes grew wide.

She never, NEVER asked about her mother. It had always been a touchy subject and no one knew how to explain it better than Haroom. But he was long gone now.

Sanderson looked down and Tooth took it as a sign of uncertainty. But she shook her head determinedly, thinking about what she and Jack had discussed in the hotel.

"Mr. Sandy, please," she begged.

She thought about GUARDIANs finding love, and pregnancies, and a father too meek to have a daughter born for experimentation. She had to hold onto that. After twenty-one years, this was _her,_ finally brave enough to open up that part of her heart.

"I'm...I-I'm not afraid or angry...n-not anymore. I promise..."

When Sandy shot her a carefully regarded look, it made her swallow a lump in her dry mouth. She felt so damn tired all of a sudden, but she wasn't going to lose this.

Tooth then lifted her fingers and moved them together in three circles like he had earlier.

"Story time..." she mumbled. "M-Make it story time."

Stories, he told her, were the most influential things in the world. They could open someone's eyes, make people curious, shift their opinions, and give them hope when they couldn't see or believe long after they'd forgotten. Stories were the most powerful things...That's what someone had told him long ago, and now it seemed, Toothiana was trying to remind him of the exact same thing.

Sandy looked at his bounds, inwardly raging at his imprisonment, more so that his beloved tiny princess was trapped along with him...but in what could be his last duty to honor her, her father, and her mother, he could find no such request worth denying.

The portly blonde looked up again, and the chains rattled around as he lifted his hands.

It had been Prime Minster Ty's responsibility to tell her since he knew King Haroom long before he died. But that could no longer be the case.

Tooth watched with nervous eyes.

He moved around his fingers.

Then he started the story of the FAIRYQUEEN.

_Your mothe–_

"Am I interrupting something?"

Tooth's blood ran cold.

...

A voice whose tenor could wake the dead filled the rusty, poor neglected room.

A foreboding chill crawled up her skin and made her paralyzed, almost afraid to turn around. But she saw (in the reflection of Mr. Sanderson's glassy brown eyes) that Pitch was already walking toward her cage from the door at the end of the high-ceiling room.

His footfalls made no sound under his long coat...his boots couldn't even be seen under the shadow of the material.

Or maybe it was because the shadows that he seemed to cast were always dark.

Tooth turned slowly with a cold fear dripping into her stomach, but her frustrated eyes didn't want to quit. She glared at him while her lips turned down nervously.

At the sight of her red wrist and wet eyes, and the even more imprisoned (and unkempt) man, the terrorist glared without remorse at their conditions.

"Interrupting charades, am I?" he spoke lowly. "You castle folk always think you have time in the world for everything."

When he got within two metres of Toothiana's cage, he stopped. It almost warmed his heart to see the black gas mask on her face, a product of his own creation.

"Well, let me corrupt that manifestation for you, because you don't."

Tooth viciously smacked her manacle against the steel of the bars but she otherwise didn't say a word to the terrorist.

She'd hoped to only ever see on paper or on video.

"_Speak_ when you are _spoken to_ by a royal," she seethed through the respirator with an unknown bravery and a princess coming out.

Pitch snapped his head down at her with pale gold eyes dying to grey at the edges.

"_You._ A _royal_," he sneered. "Don't flatter yourself, _princess._ Your palace sits on nothing but the dirt of a poor man's excuse for an island."

"GO TO HELL!" Tooth screamed, feeling offense and ridicule swim through her like liquid courage. She _never_ wanted to hear someone bad mouth her country without giving them a bash to the face.

A second later though, something sharp was under her chin.

"My dear, like I've told your handsome bodyguard once before, it's not big enough for me."

Then the knife pricked her skin.

Tooth tried to move away as she watched red appear on the blade. When Pitch moved the weapon away, she instantly threw her hand up to the cut and choked back a sob that threatened to jump out.

She gritted her teeth and glared up at him while he was busy inspecting her blood on his blade.

"Y-You _son_ of a–"

"Consider yourself _lucky,_ Toothiana," Pitch said rolling her name smoothly off his tongue, like the blood he was catching in the light, "because while you are _not _a GUARDIAN, you are the most powerful weapon in the world right now."

Tooth froze. Her eyes grew wide.

"G-GUA...Y-You...You kn..."

Pitch proceeded to ignore her.

"How do you like your room accommodations, your highness?" he leered. "I've taken the benefit of stripping away your luxuries for something more..._rustic. _Besides, who doesn't love the instrument of good ol' fun, torture? Cages, hm? It's like we're back in the Dark Ages. Everyone frightened. Miserable. "

Tooth's eyes grew wide with fear while his turned nostalgic.

"Such happy times it seemed to me. Imagine, the power I'd wield back then. But then, _you'd _rule as a monarch and could sooner have my head chopped off. Not unless I married you of cours–"

Sanderson was up on his feet in an instant, cold fury running across his face more than Tooth had ever seen.

Pitch stopped admiring Tooth's DNA on his knife to spare him an infuriated glare. "Sorry, chap, feeling left out?"

_SMACK!_

Tooth jumped against her cage and froze.

Sandy had just slammed his chains violently against the steel floor of the cage to get her attention. Like thunder in the clouds, the short man with a caring face melted away for one moment to reveal a serious, cold expression much like Jack's, much like Aster's...that commanding, demanding feature traced his jawline and shined in his honey brown eyes.

The strength of the slam he made with his chains made a deep dent in the cage's steel floor.

It terrified her.

But to Pitch, it was pathetic.

He rolled his eyes.

"I'm just going to ignore you," he drawled. "Although, you must be used to that by now."

He turned back to Tooth in a heartbeat.

"But _you_, love," he pointed the tip of the blade at her face with a perturbed smirk. "_You, _I bet you've never been ignored in your _life._ Such a gem you are, what with the eyes and all. And oh look..."

Pushing the knife through the bars, he brought the tip of the blade straight to her bangs.

Toothiana froze in fear, afraid that he'd stab her in the forehead. All he did though was lift a part of her hair.

"...one blonde streak. The attention from people, it must be intoxicating."

When he pulled the weapon away, she involuntarily shivered. A part of her bangs was red from the blood on the knife.

She absolutely _hated _the way he spoke to her. It was like he was trying to entice, ridicule, and scare her all at once...like a true sociopath.

Tooth bit her lip. He was like the cavity that wouldn't go away.

As he kept looking at her with a blank stare, Pitch's bright eyes flit around ever slightly. His mind was racing, the cogwheels in his head spinning with horsepower.

Slowly, a smile spread to his face again.

Pitch then leaned down and squatted before the cage in a thinking posture. Sandy didn't like how close he was to her cage and opened his mouth, rattling his chains again. Pitch paid no need and tapped the clean side of his knife against his chin.

"You know, princess, DNA is a very illustrious endeavour to trek on. Have you ever ventured down the avenue?"

When she didn't answer and glared at him, Pitch tightened his grip on his knife. She tensed instantly.

"Of course not," he answered for her. "You lot are all the same, focusing all your _bloody _resources on development and policy. You don't have time to enjoy the pleasures of biology and chemistry like the rest of us...Am I right, Sandy?"

Sanderson shook his chains again and Tooth went to turn her head to him desperately. But when the knife stopped tapping under his sickly paled skin, Pitch fixed his gaze on her.

He spoke cryptically.

"Every agent has a different genetic makeup from the gene. And it's _very _hard to re-create because it wraps _around _them, not inside them," he said and started twisting the knife in her face like he was carving a turkey. "The gene...It's like _foil, _and it enhances them."

Tooth felt her insides curdle. It was like listening to TSAR LUNAR on the video all over again.

"But your _gene, _princess, I've seen it, I know it. It _is _in you, a part of you, my dear pet. So with your help...together...let's wreak havoc on the world, shall we?"

His voice had gotten so low and quiet it was almost as if his threat was the whisper of a request, like there was even a possible chance that she'd _consider_ when he said it like that.

But a moment of silence passed...before Tooth kicked the bar right where his face was.

Sandy panicked.

She didn't hit the man, but the intention was enough to make the industrial terrorist stop twisting his knife. He threw it blindly into the wood table adjacent to them where it drove itself into the side with perfect precision.

Pitch's face was blank and his mouth was a tight line.

"Think very carefully about the repercussions of your actions, love," he threatened. "You have a country to run, a country filled with peppermint."

Pitch noticed Sandy's face turn pale and his entire body stiffen for a millisecond, and he smirked, "We can't have your rage being the reason all your precious island's crops burn to the ground and your people lose–"

"YOU LEAVE MY PEOPLE ALONE!" she suddenly screamed and smacked her bonds against the steel bars. Pitch was so thrown off by it that he faltered for a second...and that made him furious.

Sandy saw his expression change from coy to murderous and he could nothing but rush forward...and only get yanked back by his steel chains. He opened his mouth and raised his hands out trying to reach impossibly for Tooth.

She was still screaming and lashing at him through the bars.

"My dear," Pitch threatened with a calm voice but shining eyes. "Will you–"

"NO ONE THREATENS MY ISLAND!" she shouted and fixed him with her own look of murder. "YOU FU–"

"Prin_**cess**_,**"** Pitch hissed and pushed his arms behind him to keep control. "I **_do not_**–"

"YOU LEAVE MY COUNTRY, MY SISTERS, MY CARETAKER, AND ME ALONE, OR GOD, SO HELP YOUR–"

"I DO NOT ANSWER TO **THREATS**, PRINCESS!" he finally roared and Tooth instantly stopped. "_ONLY TO **FEAR!"**_

A second later, Pitch's hand reappeared from behind his back and was shooting through the bars to reach for her.

He wasn't wearing his glove.

The moment his grip covered her eyes above the gas mask, and his skin came into contact with hers...she felt something slither under his touch.

Sanderson freaked.

He pushed beyond his chains as far as he could to reach for her, but nothing worked. Then all he could was watch as she cried out under Pitch's grip, and at the mercy...of his gene.

It traveled from his fingers straight into her brain, awakening her cortex where the fear trigger was. And for all five fingers, he violently unlocked the Pandora's Box in her head.

Behind the darkness, Tooth saw and felt every fear she'd had since she was little, paralyzing her and throwing her heart into palpitation.

There was loneliness, walking for miles without being loved or remembered, her island burning to the ground, war, her friends disappearing, and children being taken one-by-one; her sisters were dying, her parents were murdered, and she was ridiculed without success, opportunity, and hope. ELFs and Nightmares falling to their deaths over and over again, and GUARDIANs (each and everyone) were drowning in a pool of their own blood. And when Jack got shot right before her eyes, she felt it hit – hit her right in the chest like an arrow.

And she screamed.

Tooth screamed, loud and from the bottom of her heart as a sadistic smile tugged at Pitch's lips. The Nightmare stationed at the front ignored her, but Tooth's crying, heartbroken and real, echoed outside the large room.

Pitch slowly pulled his hand away from her face, making sure to drag his fingers across her temples until it was completely out of the cage. But by then, Tooth was still seeing it all, and as she backed away into the corner of her cage, her tears were running down her face, uncontrollably fast and large.

He stood up and watched her scream and cry on herself with a near-relaxed calm.

"There now isn't that better?" he said as he looked at Toothiana still trying to curl herself into a ball.

"I'd say sweet dreams...but there aren't any. Isn't that right, my friend?"

Pitch flit his eyes to the gold mute man.

"What's the matter? Still can't remember me?"

His eyes were wide with horror, his breathing silent but rapid under his golden yellow attire.

Then the tall Brit walked away.

"By the way, I hope you're enjoying the sand filtration in the room. In a couple more hours, those lungs of yours won't stay silent forever. Then you won't be able to hide from me ever again."

And as he left, Sanderson could do nothing but watch Tooth helplessly cover her eyes with one hand and cry on herself.

He kept shaking his chains to get her attention, signing her name over and over again, and giving short gasps of breath she might here. But Sandy realised in his fear, that she couldn't hear him.

"I'm s...I-I...s-s..." she sobbed to herself. "I'm sorry..._I-I'm sorry.._."

And he still couldn't remember who Pitch was.

...

_Maces Bay, Nova Scotia, 1:43 p.m._

Jack felt like his entire body was made of lead.

But he couldn't stop, not yet.

He coughed violently and the frigid air in his chest made his lungs shudder, made his throat burn like whiskey without the pleasure.

"H...G-Please no..._No!_..._Ha–"_

When he lifted his left foot higher up the slope's steep incline, he almost tripped again on the soggy grass and light brush of snow. Jack's eyebrows were high on his head.

He still had his staff, he still had his belt...but what the point! They hadn't helped at all, and his gun, the one that could've shot them all dead was gone, just like...

Just because he'd gotten so fucking roused by the idea of a winning a fight with his just the skill of his gene, with impressing Tooth and LOOK WHAT HE'D JUST DONE!

Jack felt his scream bubble up into his throat again.

No, he had to get to the top, he _had _to! He needed to find Tuhina before–

Jack reached the top of the cliff and stood on the safe, high coast again, he fell onto his knees to catch his breath.

But as he clenched fistfuls of snow under his hands, Jack froze.

The violent churns of the ocean sounded far down behind him, like deep-throated sirens trying to coax him back into a watery grave. But Jack didn't hear it, didn't sense it.

Because for all his rapid breathing, his increased pulse rate, and trembling, Jack's attention wasn't on the water.

It was on the fire.

His blue eyes almost lit up green in the orange inferno that was once the church. He forced himself to watch the dark smoke billow from the once beautiful and forgotten structure, high up into the clouded stratosphere. The wood was doomed to ash, the bricks were scorched red hot, and as it crumbled in on itself, it mirrored the self-depreciating implosion going in his heart.

That fire was his fault.

Its destruction was his fault.

And the Nightmares nowhere to be seen (except for their boot prints and the dirt strips from their getaway car's tires)...that was his fault too.

Jack's fingers began to drum violently against his pants on their own. They were shaking and twitching with such a high energy.

The rest of his body suddenly went into conversion disorder.

Stiff. Immobile. Legs like dead weights.

His eyebrows, still high on his head, started to knit together in panic.

"T..._T'hna?"_ he rasped almost afraid to call her name, in case the Nightmares appeared. He knew he'd be dead in a second if–

He stopped.

'_No...No, NOT THAT. Don't EVER think that!'_

Like liquid courage dripping down his dry throat, he lifted his head slightly higher, inching his boots in the snow.

"T-Tuhina?!"

Jack started to run against his mind's own inhibition. His muscles moved like rigid prosthetic legs. But his voice came back, and his breathing came back more rapid, more shallow.

"TUHINA!"

Jack sprinted around the burning church, using it's orange firelight to see past the parts of the endless white of the cliff that made everything blur together. He pushed his wet bangs up when they tried falling into his eyes again.

Tuhina never answered back.

* * *

"_WHY DID YOU KILL HIM, TOOTHIE?! WHY DID YOU KILL HIM?!"_

* * *

But he still heard crying as Tooth carried her away into the snow.

With a burst of anxiety, he tried to use the wind to support a long leap. He wanted to reach a giant rock laying some feet away near the dirt road, but it didn't help. His racing mind and manic fidgeting made it difficult to catch and control even a piece of the air properly. And the wind, though normally strongest when he was at his most vulnerable, didn't comply this time in his emotional distress.

Maybe because his anger wasn't fixated on something else. Maybe because his destructive nature wasn't objective, wasn't outward.

Maybe because he realised all his negative energy...was targeted on himself.

Jack fell short of the leap and stumbled slightly a few metres of the rock. When he pulled his head up and stared ahead, his blood ran cold.

There was nothing there to the keen eye.

But for Jack and his artic blue eyes, he saw the footprints...the kicked up snow...the struggle that a tiny ten-year-old girl, the same age as he remembered Emma to be, put up with someone four times her size.

And he saw his blue sweatshirt.

Torn at the hood and the zipper open in an attempt to rip out whatever was inside it.

Jack's palms grew sweaty until the cold wind he inadvertently called upon, froze the vapour to his palms.

He instantly reacted and tried wiping it away on his pants.

"N-_NO!" _he shouted at himself, his teeth clenching. _"NO!"_

'_You're to cause!' _he mentally yelled at the wind he enjoyed having too much around him and realised how much destruction they'd both caused. He took several steps back from the rock until his temper wore off. When it finally did after a few more gasps for air, Jack turned back to the burning church.

His heart felt numb again, almost empty...and in the shift of spirit, he started to feel his heart slip into its default of emotions: cold ruthlessness, detachment, and vengeance–

He shook his head violently.

But he didn't want that! He didn't want to shut it off, n...n-not anymore! Not after remembering who he was, not after finding his light again, not after...

Toothiana bubbled up to the surface of his mind, sending a violent flutter across his chest. Her sister sent another one, down deep into his stomach like cold ice.

Jack couldn't handle it.

He pushed a shaky hand into his hair.

He wanted to scream.

* * *

_Nine months ago..._

* * *

_Jack was in the living room of the apartment he shared with the girl he was on-again-off-again with. She was there too, watching him put on his coat._

_"You're leaving again?" she bit out. "AGAIN?"_

_He pulled the collar up on his jacket before he reached down for his small backpack. It was the only thing he owned. Like her, he didn't carry much. And also like her, he was terrible at goodbyes._

_"JACK!"_

_Jack stopped and turned to look at her before he headed for the door. He had that look on his face again, that muddled, fogged-up, glassy eyed look that told her he was going to wonder around town again aimlessly. She didn't want that._

_"You need to STAY!"_

_"And do what, Rachel? WHAT? I can't keep sitting around and pretending like this is normal!"_

_She fixed him with a cold look. Her green eyes and long blonde hair framed her beautiful face serenely, but her lethal glare was twisted._

_"Don't make me the bad guy," she said, repeating something she thought someone had once said to her – but like the rest of her memories, she couldn't remember who. _

_He noticed the light freckles on her nose when she scrunched it angrily before she continued._

_"You said you were done walking around. So don't you dare leave. Don't leave!"_

_"Why? So you it'll be YOUR turn to leave after this argument, then I'LL be the one worried sick, wondering where YOU went?"_

_"What I do isn't the same thing!"_

_"Don't tell me that crap," he argued hotly. "You pulled the same shit two days ago and you vanished on me for twelve hours! TWELVE HOURS!"_

_The girl said nothing, her almost-biploar state unnerving to the brunette...even though he knew he was capable of the exact same thing._

_"We can't pull off normal, Rachel!" Jack finally admitted as he gritted his teeth. "We tried, okay, but let's face it. You don't know who you are, I don't know who I am, and neither of us is invested in this!"_

_"We can keep trying," she threatened but the edge wasn't really in her voice. Under the surface of her vigour, she sounded just as tired as he did. _

_Jack picked up on it instantly._

_"No," he argued. "We can't."_

_"And do you know why, Jack?" she pushed as it looked like he was about to go out the door again. "Why?"_

_When his hand was on the door, Rachel balled her small fists._

_"Because you're poison, Jack. You're poison."_

_And while she hated to say it, she and Jack never had a pleasant relationship from the start. They were mostly hard and bitter towards each other and keep ditching the other at the slightest chance. They only came together for comfort in the dead of night, then for reasons beyond them, they would both be off wandering around again trying to clear their heads of an amnesia that wouldn't go away._

_But neither thought to ask or comfort the other about what was troubling them; they'd both been raised (at least, it seemed like they'd been raised) in a way to not talk about their feelings and they decided to keep it that way. _

_Jack tightened his hand against the doorknob._

_"I'M the one destroying this relationship?"_

_How could she say that? _

_He'd been the one who was really trying at first to start a relationship with her, to help her if she was willing. But Rachel left him twice in the middle of the night, mumbling something about the sun and a 'Corona' when she came back until it was gone again. But he knew she wasn't talking about the beer. _

_Not only that...but something in him told him too that she was always waiting for someone else. Someone she either couldn't remember, or someone who was never coming back. And after the third wander off, he started doing it himself._

_And now she was calling HIM the poison in the relationship?_

_He looked over his shoulder, but Rachel didn't move a muscle, except for the ones in her mouth._

_"You're destroying everything. And watch, if you leave me now, you'll destroy someone else's. Because that's what you do. That's what I do...And that's why we need to stay together, so we don't hurt other people."_

_Jack wretched his hand from the doorknob and turned to the blonde._

_"You say that," he started. "But we're both unstable, you know that too. I can't...You...We can't stay like this."_

_Just three months earlier, he'd woken up alone, killed people and was a internationally wanted fugitive. Every bitter emotion he was holding onto kept wanting to lash out at her, and himself. And he hated himself for it._

_Rachel opened her mouth but Jack beat her to it._

_"We will never be good for each other and I might lose someone else to my own mistakes but...but..."_

_Jack then dropped his backpack to the floor._

_He sighed angrily. He wanted to get out. He really did._

_"But...fine. At least let me BREATHE for a few hours then...I'll come right back, okay?"_

_And Rachel looked down at his bag where he made it fall to make a statement. After a moment, she pursed her pink lips and looked up at him with hard (but impossibly wide) emerald eyes._

_"Jack..." she admitted fretfully, but he knew she was saying it to herself too. "You can't save anyone. You're like me...You'll lose someone if you make a mistake."_

_Jack then touched her hair and she leaned into the touch. But he still had a hard look of his own. "I can try."_

_Jack then went out and did what he always did. He wandered around town avoiding the police, searching for any clue of who he was, or just muddling around until his brain hurt. He hoped when he got back to her apartment, he and Rachel could try to work on their imperfect relationship together._

_But when he did, the green-eyed blonde had already packed her things. As he looked at her sad expression though, Jack wasn't mad. Neither was she._

_"I'm sorry, Jack," she mumbled. But he shook his head._

_"We both knew we'd part eventually. So...I'm sorry too. I'm not mad at you."_

_'I'm mad at myself,' he thought._

_She nodded sympathetically. "And I'm not mad at you."_

_Then with a frown, Rachel left him through the window in her room. Her last month's rent was on the bed and then she did what Jack did best too...and that was vanish._

* * *

___You'll lose someone if you make a mistake__._

Jack looked back out at the ocean, but the Nightmare vessel was no longer there.

As the wedge in his heart grew bigger, he looked down. Then with shaky fingers, he unclipped the compartment that he'd sealed over with duct tape, and when he pulled out what he needed he gulped down a breath of cold air.

It was a good thing Aster had given him an extra complink beyond North's discretion. And it was a good thing too that the duct tape idea worked because it kept the area dry.

Shoving the Bluetooth into his ear, Jack waited.

He waited for what felt like hours, days, months, until...

_**"****Chzzzc!...**_**Shostakovich! J-Jack?"**

Jack's fingers continued to shake (from the cold or his emotions, he wasn't sure). But then he looked out onto the coast again with slightly shivering body.

_**"Jack!**_** Are you alright?! Where is..."**

He drew in a frigid breath but it sounded more like a choke on the other end, and North stopped all at once.

"R-Remember when you asked me to join you and the others in the group...and I-I refused?"

**"D...D-Da?"**

Jack turned backed to the ocean again.

___You can't save anyone..._...I can try.

Because the thing was, he wasn't just anyone. And neither was Tooth.

"I...I think I..."

And he shuddered from the breath leaving his lungs.

"It's time...I-I'm ready to be a GUARDIAN again."

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "Sign" (FF7: Advent Children) – Nobuo Uematsu **(t****hank you bente36 for suggesting such a chilling track via tumblr!**)

**So guys welcome to the Gold arc. This is where it finally clashes with the underlining Black arc that's been trailing the Blue and Pink. And big welcome...to Sandy! Took a thousand years huh? Lol I love Sandy and in tribute to his silent character, I wanted to make any dialogue he had almost non-existent (unless it's Tooth he's talking to). Tough but fun. And you'll notice that as opposed to suffering from sleep, my Sandy actually suffers from insomnia. Why? I have my reasons. *thumbs up* Now go and be free until the next (surprising) chapter, my monkeys.**


	39. Our Last Bedtime Story

**Yup! You guys are right, Rachel was Rapunzel so cookie for you (: And thanks for pointing out my errs, guys, I'll fix them! Alright soo...I love this chapter. It's my gift to you since I started school today. Enjoy! And to everyone already back at school and finding time to keep up with me, haha you're awesome sauce! You really are.**

* * *

**"One breath...One breath for all...So tender."**

* * *

_"How..._did_ your mom survive? _

_If the children from the INNOCENCE program died instantly from the gene...why didn't she..._

_...and...why didn't you?"_

_..._

_..._

_..._

_"S-Sir?...C-Can you...Can you tell me about...m-my mother?_

_I'm...I-I'm not afraid or angry...n-not anymore. I promise...  
_

_Story time...M-Make it story time."_

_..._

_..._

_..._

_Okay, Sandman, do your thing. You're good at bedtime stories._

_..._

_..._

_..._

_So here is one, from 24 years ago._

Before touchscreens, functioning prototype heat sensors, and badass weapons...there were simpler firearms, telephones, and spies who still existed and did all the dangerous stunts.

There were the real people that celebrities played out every in spy cliché on screen and on paper.

And among them, there was a girl, doing the real thing.

Rashmi was a twenty-five-year old woman, strong, fast, and brave. She was fierce and fearless and proudly worked for the company as a covert agent engaged in the duty of espionage.

She was also the kind of girl who'd staple your forehead if you messed with her.

Best suited to environmental instigation and protection, Rashmi was the best field agent in the company's first generation of spies. It was once a government-funded agency that only worked in system operations, but after one very wealthy man decided he had a mission to buy, take over, and revamp the place, it gave people like Rashmi the chance to fight for people beyond simple law enforcement and desk administration. In her time, she saved many dignitaries, and looked out for her partners like a born leader and a true warrior.

Her greatest witness protection mission however, ended up having her fall for the target she was protecting.

But back then, Rashmi didn't anticipate any kind of emotional entanglements. She was usually too busy looking after her team and turning down dates this way and that. So when she grabbed her folder and headed out for her month-long assignment to the tiny little island, she'd been _sure_ that nothing eventful passed nightly stakeouts and profiling her involved parties would happen.

And profiling, she did.

On her intended killer, her intended target, and the country itself: Punjam Hy Loo.

It was pretty when she first landed, but she couldn't really appreciate it as she got straight to work.

The Prince Haroom Hypunjam was to be protected from a South Asian criminal and bounty hunter. He'd been ID'd by her company as the leader in a South Asian drug cartel, a 'marijuana maharajah' as her partners joked (until she smacked them upside the head).

But his codename, and what the Lulus (the locals) merely called hi, was 'The Monkey King'...

Why?

Well, Rashmi didn't really care why but liked to think that maybe he was incredibly hairy.

Turned out though, it was because he was very crafty.

Not to mention vengeful.

He made it his goal to kill the soon-to-be-crowned prince after the man exposed his attempt to cover up weed grow ops on the island's beloved peppermint plots and imprisoned him for his greed. But when he got out, Rashmi was assigned to protect the prince and track the hunter down should he reappear in the Punjam rainforests.

As for the Prince himself...

The first time Rashmi met the taller man, she wasn't all that smitten. In fact, she missed the way his mouth fell slightly open and his cheeks burned when she bowed and he realised that _she_ was his bodyguard. Prince Haroom was handsome sure, but she wasn't all that into the quiet types. She always thought she'd end up in some epic, broken romance with another spy in the company. That hadn't happened yet but hey! She was a woman, she could dream.

So while he took her hand and warned her to be careful on the island's rainforests, all she did was smile and say it would be a piece of cake.

Haroom scratched for head for hours after that, wondering what she meant by that expression, until he nervously assumed she wanted to eat cake with him. He had it explained to him later when he sent the kitchen on a mad dash for cake ingredients.

...

_The days dragged on..._

The Prince's assassin never appeared but it didn't mean he wasn't out there. So Rashmi went about her job on the island, determined and courageous as always while the Prince watched on, always worried and secretly adoring her. But smart as Rashmi was, she picked up on it right away and teased him incessantly when they were alone. She'd pretend to make advances then left the handsome Thai flustered when she moved away with a coy smile.

"Oops! Sorry, your highness!" she'd joke, and Haroom would pull at his collar and just smile. He wasn't shy, he just knew he was out of her league.

By royal protocol, royals were allowed to choose their own lovers and who they wanted to sit on their court whether rich or poor. They believed in diversify, as was their faith in the rainbow, and belief that in all things big and small, everyone was special. So Haroom was still searching, wondering what he wanted in a wife, in a queen and partner at the throne. But in those days, it was nice to have her attention.

He just had to be careful, as he and his family always was.

There was a saying though that the locals had about the Hypunjams, that they 'loved too fast and too much'. Because as much as they protected the homes of their people, it was the people who had to protect the hearts of the royal family.

Rashmi didn't understand at first until one night, she asked the Prince himself before saying goodnight to him after her nightly round. She knocked on his door, already in her pajamas but heading on to the room she and her partners had setup as their office space to drop off a file. He was surprised at first when he opened the door, but Rashmi had more conviction than most people gave her credit. She could make anything look like a business interaction when it was completely personal. Which, you know, it was.

The words left her mouth before he could even offer a proper goodnight, before he could even comprehend that she wasn't in a business suit or spy clothes for the first time.

"Why are they trying to protect your heart?" she asked like she was asking about the weather. Her charm, right here.

Haroom blinked down at her. She blinked back up. She looked like a normal person...and he was ashamed to say that he liked it.

Eventually, her eyebrows furrowed and she frowned slightly.

"How come?"

Haroom had no immediate answer. He looked sideways before he abruptly walked back to his large bed near the door and sat on it.

Rashmi was going to apologize and leave, feeling for once out of place for talking so randomly to someone so important. But when she pressed her fingertips to her lips (as she did when she was always nervous), Haroom dropped his gaze to the floor.

He simply shrugged and ran a hand through his black hair.

"Ah..." he started before he dropped his hand in his lap and gestured for the beautiful Indian woman to step inside his room. Rashmi peeked beyond his doors wondering if it was protocol but realised she didn't care. She then shut the door and gave the Crown Prince an almost shy smile (for once again) as she sat across from him, perching herself on the chair.

The warm roaring fire from his bedroom fireplace kept the nightly breezes at bay. It was known thing that the wind seemed to love swirling spires, golden hallways, and open marble windows of the castle – because of it, the palace was always cool.

He then explained what the people meant by 'protecting the hearts of the royal family'.

It was a supposed curse.

The Hypunjam family had a long list of betrayals as old as the mountains. Their hearts were always too big, too open. Yet while the people loved them for always being too compassionate, too selfless, many times, the great relationships they made with certain people would turn out to be tricks of lies or deceit. They always had their hearts broken in some form or way because of it.

He was of no exception.

And in the dark of the night and the warmth of the fire, Haroom explained that The Monkey King, who'd almost destroyed his country's namesake and was out to kill him...had actually been his dear friend growing up.

Rashmi put a hand to her mouth and said nothing. But she visibly trembled with anger in her dark eyes.

Haroom looked away to block out her scornful expression.

The so-called friend, Raja-Sun, whom he'd given everything to had turned around and became a thief and an exploiter. And while Haroom said he never really wanted for anything, even growing up as a prince, he did have one request: for his old friend, even though he knew he was never coming back.

Rashmi could understand what he meant by 'never really wanting anything' from the first moment they met. Haroom always seemed very humble about everything he was given, very down-to-earth. She could even see it in the way the Prince dressed himself so plainly. And when she bid him goodnight after their talk, he was like a regular man, giving into her coquettish smiles and scratching his head bemusedly.

After that, she looked at Haroom more closely. She still teased him, but she gave him more attention than she realised. Because despite being on dignitary protection, Haroom actually _was _interesting beyond his quietness.

She watched him go about his duties as a ruler, his enjoyment with his people, and his impromptu vanishing so no one could find him at random times. To throw off any mysterious hunter's gaze on him, of course.

In those waning weeks, her fascination grew, along with the absence of any disturbance in the forests.

They thought that maybe The Monkey King might have left anyway for a new place to conquest. They thought they could get back to their peace...

...but the peace between didn't last for long.

...

Haroom's old friend was still hiding in the Punjam's rainforests.

And the more Rashmi knew where to find the hiding Haroom more than necessary, the more _he _spied on her.

Raja-Sun studied her movements even though she was near impossible to track, being the covert agent she was. But he was one of the best bounty hunters in South and Southeast Asia since he abandoned the island and his friendship with the Prince. Eventually, four days before Rashmi was assigned to leave and a new bodyguard would appear, he saw his chance. His old friend Haroom was practicing his Muay Thai kickboxing in the one place he didn't know existed – a secret garden hidden on the other side of the mountain where the palace sat. Sticking out from a balcony, it nestled itself right in the snug of the cliff.

He scaled the wall with great climbing ability, and a gun (he'd managed to grab during his escape out of the Punjam prison) at his holster. It only had one bullet left in it, and he was ensuring it for Haroom.

Inside, Haroom was busy trying to practice his skills. Rashmi offered to help since she deemed his skills pathetic and teased him. He still had a hard time understanding what she said half the time since she grew up in the States and was more unrefined than he first realised. But Haroom came to conclusion that was what he liked about her. While she was gracious, she was always trying to make him smile.

And Rashmi never said, but she thought he had a nice smile. As the two continued to spar (or...it was more Haroom failing miserably and Rashmi trying to support him), the kingpin made his appearance.

They had a major standoff.

Raja-Sun swooped in and undercover partners of Rashmi exposing themselves for a full-on fight. It was pure chaos, a madness plaguing the poor balcony as men and women went up in arms and down from the blows the bounty hunter's powerful fists. Soon, they were all down and like a demon out of the shadows, he advanced on the Prince.

Rashmi was clutching her side. She'd gotten kicked while trying to protect one of her partners and actively playing her part as the Prince's bodyguard by staying close to him. Haroom was bitter and cold, warning his friend of his earlier mistakes and his condemnation of their friendship. But the friend didn't listen and without much decision, he lifted his gun–

–and aimed it right at Rashmi.

He knew the girl would be his bigger threat and he wanted to watch the Prince suffer before he found another means to end his life.

But neither were prepared when Haroom selflessly pushed himself in front of Rashmi and covered her...just as the trigger was pulled.

Rashmi screamed, terrified for the first time during a mission about losing someone. She grew enraged and when The Monkey King made his escape, she wanted to dash after him. She even made it to the edge of the garden's balcony until Haroom called out to her.

"Wait!"

When she turned, seeing all the blood on his shirt nearly made her cry. He told her not to go after him, that the jump from this height would surely kill him. He didn't know what he'd do if something happened to her. And against Rashmi's usual ferocity, she understood and she stayed by his side, clutching his hand and realising then that what she felt for the prince went beyond a simple platonic friendship. Her partners went after the man for her instead after they recovered.

Several times, she pressed her fingertips to her lips to stop herself from crying – she refused to cry in front of anyone.

But it was hard not to be swept up in the emotions.

Haroom took a bullet for her. A prince took a dive for someone he barely knew, for someone who was more than capable of handling and accepting a fate like death.

And when that thought plagued her, Rashmi bit down on her lip.

But a sob escaped anyway...and she cried until the castle doctors finally appeared.

"I-I'm sorry..." she kept apologizing and Haroom looked at her in shock as he struggled to keep his eyes clear.

"I thought you said I was boring," he joked and she wiped her eyes bitterly.

"You were," she laughed. "But like all things big and small, everyone is special...r-right?"

And he grinned as he kissed her hand.

Later, as Haroom went through critical care, Rashmi was told by her team that Raja-Sun was found with a bruised tailbone and was captured. And with international police help, he would not be escaping jail cells anytime soon.

Rashmi then stayed by Haroom's bedside for an extra day despite reprimand from her superiors. She never stayed longer than she needed to for a mission...and with so many new missions yet to be assigned to, she couldn't afford the luxury.

Still, Rashmi didn't listen.

Because for once, she let her heart (which was always devoted to the good of others), be selfish and devoted to one man.

One clumsy, caring man. Who just happened to be a prince.

_Two days passed..._

Rashmi passed out next to Haroom's bedside, her face splashed with all the exhaustion hidden under her fighting facade from being a field agent for so long. She almost didn't feel Haroom stir until his hand accidentally brushed hers. When it did, they both jolted awake – until all they saw was each other.

Rashmi blushed, nervous for the first time in such a long time, and grinned warmly – because all she could see was the selfless man. And Haroom grasped her hand confidently, brave and not all at shy anymore when she was around – because all he could see was the woman with a heart like a princess even when she laughed into his bed sheet, realizing how cliché and ironic this was. The royal who fell in love with the bodyguard? Opposites attract? Yeah, that was one_ right _out of the books!_  
_

But she didn't care. Maybe she _could _learn to love someone as humble and quiet as Haroom.

If he survived, that is – which he did...

...and so did all the affection they harboured for each other.

...

_The final day..._

In one month, a lot had changed.

Rashmi was ready to depart back to the States, to her home, and Haroom saw her off formally before his court and her partners in the throne room. They all paid their respects to each other, being very courteous about their jobs well done and the countries each party would continue to protect. He was moving on his own again after two days of rest and everyone fell back into their regular roles.

But before they could fully depart, as each agents went to collect the last of their things from their rooms, Haroom pulled Rashmi into a secret alcove in the hallway for his own personal goodbye.

She teased him that he should be consider being a covert operative one day until he shot her a confident, mischievous grin and said that he'd maybe consider it. It left her weak in the knees.

He then pulled her head to his and he gave her a kiss that the operative wasn't opposed to.

They fell in love after...but Rashmi's job prevented her from being with him. Their only chance was that they could kept in touch through Ty Bangkot who was a trusted outside ally to the company. Haroom knew him as an outside principal agent for the company. He was a handler for a network of agents in Southeast Asia and since he had to attend many public events on the company's behalf, they had known each other for a long time, until he moved over and became Punjam's Prime Minister. It was how Ty knew that Haroom needed help.

Agent Bangkot was then puzzled when Rashmi wanted him to send messages to Prince Haroom on her behalf just to see how he was doing.

Ty always lifted an eyebrow at that. "Just how 'he's doing'? Seriously?"

And Rashmi always cocked one hip and put her hand on it.

"Go on, gimme that look," she dared him. "But you'll be hearing from my boyfriend."

Bangkot couldn't stop the smile on his face. "Boyfriend, huh?"

And Rashmi grinned proudly.

She and the Prince of Punjam Hy Loo kept in contact through the many months as Haroom did his part for his country and Rashmi did hers for the many others. As they grew closer, Haroom grew more comfortable speaking out on behalf of himself and Rashmi was more careful of the people around her.

Then at the height of both their successes...Project GUARDIAN was mysteriously created.

...

At the time, the GUARDIAN program only recruited very few agents, only the best and only the most pure at heart. Investments into it were very lucratively spent, and the science around it was always on its tiptoes, afraid of messing up at the slightest hitch.

But after the success of two agents simultaneously involved in the creation of the Center gene, the members then offered the chance secretly to their next best (but not personally involved) agent.

And as luck would have it, Rashmi was their first choice.

Surprised was understatement of the year.

Rashmi was stunned the first time they asked her in private.

She spilled her coffee on her pants and cussed in Hindi until she was sure she came back looking calm and professional.

Thing was though, she wasn't calm. She was still stunned.

The kind of science they were talking about (genes, elemental enhancements and what-not), those kind of things weren't supposed to exist for at least another 20 years...heck, maybe only in movies! So it was natural that she grew suspicious. Rashmi was always cunning first, calculating other people's motives before she made a decision. But after careful debate and reassurance that the gene would not come to harm her or her loved ones, she decided anything to help the people of the world better would be worth it.

Rashmi then sent Haroom one last letter saying she would be away for a long time and did not when she would get back to him, but that she would miss him every day. And the Hypunjam prince offered the same condolence, saying he was proud and supported her in whatever she did. Then Rashmi went into training for a full year until she was ready to accept the gene.

Once she was injected, went into stasis, the first-handpicked, consenting GUARDIAN came out never feeling so awake. Every part of her felt weird to the touch but in a good way. And when they checked her vitals and found her biology stable (just as they promised), everyone in the GUARDIAN program hugged her and wished her the best.

Twelve hours later, she headed out for her first assigned 24-hour solo mission...and performed it in less than four.

Everyone rejoiced, and Rashmi was still speechless, jumping around and zipping around the new CORE sector of the company with a content grin. The Center Gene made her strong and powerful, and she had nothing but love and praise for the scientists and the tenets that the new GUARDIANs would follow: to protect the world and each other.

She was so successful, such a role-model, and after the founder, TSARLUNAR, gave the green-light to bring in more talented agents, the program took off.

...

More access agents were called in, inviting the best agents of the company worldwide for the chance of a lifetime. And scientists replicated the same Center gene with careful excitement. They watched strong men and women come in (sometimes humble, sometimes boastful), train hard for 12 months, give their old lives up, then get injected over and over until they had well over 30 new GUARDIANs...then 70...then 130!

It was mindblowing.

And for every new GUARDIAN 'reborn', they were given holiday/fairytale-themed codenames best suited to their appearances and skill.

Since the Center gene was still newly made, all GUARDIANs only had one-two abilities.

Rashmi's was "The FAIRYQUEEN" because her center allowed her to slow gravity under her feet when she jumped. It made her look like she was hovering in mid air and stopped the impact from high jumps. She was the best chaser in the _Hunter _division because of it. She also knew that if Raja-Sun ever came back and tried to jump off that balcony again, Rashmi would be one step behind him. She wasn't afraid of heights anyway.

Not only that, but Rashmi was able to speak every language. She commanded an army of people at her disposal and many times would communicate between more than one networks of agents at a time. In her time, she was the program's best and strongest GUARDIAN, with a Rank A honor. Yet while it was truly amazing, it was also very time-consuming.

But only for a while.

The growth of Project GUARDIAN reached an astounding height in its first three years, and with so many superagents in the field, she found more time off to be with Haroom. The board had no ill feelings about it and neither did the Royal Hypunjam Court. Love was love, and both lovers had devoted enough of themselves to others that they should be blessed with happiness themselves.

So eventually, a twenty-nine-year-old Haroom found himself walking twenty-eight-year-old Rashmi to the end of the aisle, and the two were married. The days that followed were perfect.

And then Rashmi was pregnant.

When the news spread, the island celebrated all through the night until people passed out on themselves. They loved their new princess (knowing it was she who helped protect their prince after all the gossip in the newspaper) and were more than happy that their soon-to-be king would happily rule with a family after everything that almost ruined him.

Maybe the bad luck that befell the royal family would end...

Maybe the Hypjunam's curse would be lifted. It always did once they found their match...

...but tell that to Rashmi's Center gene.

Because after three months, her condition began to take a turn for the worst.

...

At first it was just headaches and a couple faints here and there.

But then Rashmi started moaning in the middle of the night, and having nightly sweats that shut on and off.

Haroom held her, comforting her until her tremors stopped. But then she started mentioning burns that were never there, something neither of them could see...

...something internal.

So without a second thought, Haroom requested an audience from the members and scientists of Project GUARDIAN while he and Rashmi stayed up with their trusted handmaids in waiting.

They came within hours.

The scientists hovered all around Rashmi doing their work and comforting her as they tried what they could. She was one of the first agents to have the Center gene...but _the _first to ever be pregnant _while_ having it. Haroom tried to distract himself by trying to have rational discussions with the few Center gene theorists who'd come along for support. He demanded to know what was happening to his wife.

Then as they tried to explain, Rashmi cried in the bedroom.

He rushed in to help her but when he got there, she was inhaling and exhaling out of her mouth harshly and holding her stomach gently, trying to comfort the growing child inside.

The Prince didn't know what to think.

And he didn't know what to do when she started to physically change.

...

Skin started to discolour...beautiful, dark hair started to fall out...and a sting in her back where wings might've been made it hard for her to sit straight.

Rashmi pressed her fingertips to her lips more often before she kissed them and rubbed them to her stomach.

Her pregnancy was complicated by the Center Gene in her biology. She was in constant pain and the scientists hadn't develop a biotic in time to help ease or reverse it because everyone thought the gene was stable. But it didn't mean they wouldn't try.

They made accommodations for Rashmi quickly to be flown back to the company, and looked after by the scientists waiting for her. Then they promised a few tests and a quick job on a possible biotic to help stabilize her changing gene when she left. She and Haroom agreed that they didn't want their baby to grow and be born inside a cold facility.

But they had to be honest...they told her they didn't know if she or the baby would survive long enough.

And every day, Rashmi and Haroom lived in tired fear.

The court watched their beloved prince pace back and forth when he wasn't doing his regular work and when he wasn't with his wife. And the handmaidens always bit their lips when Rashmi told them (in perfect Thai, a language she'd never spoken before she got the gene) that she was A-Okay...but they noticed her fingers shaking and her breathing becoming shallow. They never mentioned that her skin was purpling behind her neck. Soon they were almost afraid to touch her, and Rashmi couldn't blame them. She didn't know when she'd die...but she didn't want the only life she and Haroom had created to suffer.

And it haunted them...at every waking hour...at every moment of rest.

They'd lie awake at night with Haroom cocooning around his wife as her light started to dim slightly. Women normally glowed during pregnancy, Rashmi certainly had in the first three months. But with the mutation accelerating, her fire was growing tired in a battle it was never meant to fight. And it made his heart ache.

He stroked her hair and Rashmi nuzzled her heart-shaped face into the silk pillow.

"I hope the baby's alright, Ha," she'd whisper and Haroom would shut his eyes and put his hand over her growing belly.

"I know, Mi...I know."

"I'm sorry..."

Haroom paused and leaned over her. When he looked, he saw tears slip down Rashmi's face.

"I let the curse ha-happen again. I lied to you...I promised I'd be here. A-And I won't...I can't.._._I-I don't_ have_ time."

And Haroom looked sideways to avoid letting his wet eyes glint in the moonlight.

He silently wept anyway.

...

Rashmi didn't lie down and take it though. She'd be damned if she couldn't hang on for nine months.

So every day, she did anything to keep her body healthy, active, and her spirits alive. She went for walks, laughed with the locals and the palace workers, helped with development projects around the country and kept up with the rest of the world through their old friend, Agent Bangkot. He kept her up to speed with everything, even his time as a board member on Project GUARDIAN. So far, every other agent seemed fine and healthy and she had to sigh in relief for that. Because she was Rashmi – she wouldn't be who she was without being caring.

And everyday, she drank pots of peppermint tea.

Rashmi hated peppermint all her life but since living on the island, it was like she couldn't get enough of it. Maybe it was the way the Lulus brewed it. Maybe it was a craving from the pregnancy. But whatever it was, Rashmi liked to have it whenever she could. And the locals _did_ encourage that peppermint was an old remedy used to help ease a lot of pain.

And it did.

The princess-in-waiting never went six hours without a steaming cup in her hands and if she had to, she found herself chewing on mint leaves or just sitting on the balconies that faced the peppermint plot lands while the breeze blew the smell into her face.

And she always smiled. It smelled like Haroom.

Even if she was still in pain, she was always thankful that she was able to help save the tiny, little island in the Southeast from being turned into a drug pit. It was beautiful now that she could fully appreciate it, and while she knew she might not last long, at least she could give them and their royal family one child to carry on its legacy.

She just hoped her and Haroom's baby would love and be proud of Punjam Hy Loo too.

When the last month came, everyone walked around like they were on eggshells. The royal couple, the island, the scientists, board members. All of them.

They didn't know what to expect, what to think, but all they could do was hope. Hope for Rashmi's health, Haroom's dying love, and the well-being of a child no one had foreseen to cause such a turn of events.

In her last days, Rashmi laid next to Haroom and the two stayed up all night wondering about their futures. Haroom selflessly promised that no matter what happened, he would love and protect their child. And in her compassion, Rashmi never blamed the child for her ailing health, she never blamed anyone for anything. Then they shut their eyes and went to sleep because they knew tomorrow was a big day.

...

_The next morning..._

Haroom was on one knee at the top of the stairs leading to the throne room.

It was his Coronation day and all the people had jam-packed themselves into the castle for his crowning. Normally, the throne room was closed to the public until _after_ the king's formal crowning, then he would make his grand appearance to the crowd waiting outside. But with his wife suffering and the obvious pain plaguing the island for months, the court couldn't be heartless. They let the doors open and let the islanders be with their future king, sitting quietly and waiting patiently in support. Even the simple newspress from _The Hummingbird_ was there to document everything in silence.

The ceremony began.

The royal court said their oaths, reciting the Hypunjam royal bloodline's sacred duty over every bird and under every elephant they cherished. Haroom agreed wholeheartedly, ready to further look after his people as he always had. But he couldn't help it if his mind was a little preoccupied with the distant echoes down the hall on his left – the hall where he knew midwives, handmaidens, and any other available medical and science team were at Rashmi's every beck and call. Her delivery date was any day now so they had to be ready.

Then finally, the crown was produced. Everyone held their breaths, even the two royal brothers.

With Haroom's father already passed, no one was there to wear the crown until Haroom's time, even though he already ruled without it. But now that he was ready, it was taken out of hiding and ready to sit on his head until his child or by some emergency, his brother, Tanvir had to take possession. When Haroom looked at his younger brother, the man nodded his head proudly and smiled. He never wanted the crown anyway but he would be right by his older brother's side if he ever needed it.

So with a final oath, the crown keeper held the gold symbol of power over the Prince and lowered it onto his head.

But–

_"...AHH! G–AHHH!..."_

Haroom's eyes widened and his head pulled back.

Rashmi's scream bounced off the marble walls and threw itself into the grand throne room. Everyone's goosebumps appeared and hearts started to race.

But none more the prince's.

"..._HA-H I...I...ARGHH! *sobbing*..."_

"Pị! (Go!) Go, prince!" one villager yelled and another man agreed.

"Yes go, your highness! We can wait!"

"Go! Run!"

"GO! _GO!_"

And as their panic started to heighten, so did their future king's.

Haroom apologized helplessly but he didn't need to. The royal court shook their heads worriedly and ushered him out, holding the crown nervously.

The next thing Haroom knew, he was flying down the throne steps and into the hall faster than any hummingbird. His chest was threatening to explode from the inside out, and the farther he drifted away from his people and the closer his wife's screams became, he almost couldn't breathe.

His sandals pounded the floor. Every stomp though wasn't loud enough to drown out Rashmi's crying.

When he emerged in the doorway, the doctors, midwives, handmaidens, and scientists let him pass while they darted around her.

"Mi! Mi, I'm here! Take my hand!"

Rashmi looked up at him and grabbed it.

Her mouth hung open as sweat matted her hair. Her water had already broken and she was ready to deliver, but it was near impossible to get her to speak.

"H...I-I...W–"

She started puffing out deep breaths as a fire spread across her chest.

Something wasn't right, wasn't normal, she just _knew_ it.

GUARDIAN scientists kept shooting half-completed biotics into her arm and castle midwives continued wafting peppermint-scented candles near her to calm her erratic heartbeat.

But it was already too late.

The gene had already mutated to an irreversible point that had redesigned most of her organs to fail. They didn't even know what the child would look like or if it would survive once it left her – it was hard to tell since every scan they tried since the fifth month could not read Rashmi properly.

But they knew they'd lose her.

_Beep. Beep._

They'd lose her if she kept pushing herself.

_Beep. Beep._

"Let us, miss!" one doctor tried to urge.

"Allow us to perform an emergency C-section!"

"Yes, princess!" a GUARDIAN scientist pressured. "W-We can try to save you both!"

_Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep._

They kept telling her to stop. To stop and let them help. Or least let them put her on anesthesia and wake her up when the child was out.

"Do not push–"

"Rest your h–"

But–

"NO!"

They stopped instantly.

_Beep. Beep._

"N-No...this child is m...I can do it. I-I need to! Because I..."

No one said a word and looked to the (not crowned yet) King, in support.

_Beep. Beep._

But after a ghostly look passed his face, he looked at them firmly.

"It is her decision..."

_Beep. Beep._

"...and y-you must respect that."

So they backed off, not offering any extra medicines past peppermint or morphine as the woman fearfully squeezed her husband's hand.

Rashmi was determined.

She wanted to do it herself. She wanted to bring her baby in the world on her own, see him/her with her own eyes.

Because she knew, if they put her to sleep...she would probably never wake up.

Haroom stayed with her, holding her hand as she gasped and gave every bit of energy she had left for their child.

_Beep. Beep._

All the while, she whispered _'I'm sorry'_ as he pushed her sweaty hair from her face and kissed her hair, not at all caring about the thin mutational sprout that had appeared at the crown of her head from the last two days.

_Beep. Beep._

Haroom then pressed his lips to her fist and looked down as tears made everything hard for him to see.

But she could feel it in her bones. She was ready to shut down.

_Beep. Beep. _

_Beep. Beep._

_"I...I-I'm sorry, H-Ha..."_

_Beep. Beep._

_"I know, Mi..."_

_Beep. Beep._

_"...I-I know."_

_Beep. Beep...Beep...Beep._

_Beep...Beep._

_...Beep._

Forty minutes later, the flat line filled the room...

...and Rashmi was dead.

Her hand was limp in his and their daughter was in his arms, crying and crying for milk...and a mother who was no longer there.

The medical team stood back with grief, looking on in stunned silence that, while everyone knew it would happen, it was still too much to take in.

Haroom carefully placed his daughter's forehead next to Rashmi's face, letting the tiny girl feel the last bit of warmth that radiated from her mother. But when her tiny hand reached out blindly for the woman, she cried again and he had to pull her away.

"Co...C-Congratulations, your highness. Y-You have a b...beautiful baby girl."

But he didn't hear them.

Haroom then sat there and stared down at her.

Gold skin, full head of dark hair, and one golden yellow streak. She looked so healthy, alive, and unmutated.

But he stared for so long that it hurt, that Haroom then leaned down and pressed his forehead to hers.

And he cried with her.

No..._for_ her.

Because he didn't know when she'd die next.

Hours later, Haroom was left alone.

Alone in his silence when he still had to be crowned in the grand throne room while everyone stayed outside to grieve and to give him space.

When the crown was finally placed on his head, the new King shut his eyes.

His daughter's crying was heard in the royal crib a few feet away, the only other royal present other than his brother.

...

...

...

"But why..._H-How?"_

Mr. Sanderson stopped telling the story and lifted his head at her voice.

He gave Tooth a nervous look, but her face was a blank canvas. It _had_ been ever since she stopped screaming and Pitch's gene faded off. But when she collapsed, facing him with wide, terrified eyes, her silence had been too much.

Her lips quivered as she spoke again.

"The gene it–How did I...H-How did...m-mom..."

Mom.

She said it...She _said _it.

His heart nearly stopped when..._that word..._left her mouth.

Mr. Sandy then looked down. Then he tried to explain.

...

_Drink this, Rashmi...Drink it, every day._

_"Drink this, Toothie...Drink it every day. It'll keep you healthy."_

_And Tooth never argued. She liked peppermint. _

_She had one cup in the morning, and one at night, thinking it always made her stronger, helped her breathe better when she thought she had a stuffy nose. She also liked to brush her teeth with mint toothpaste and make sure the Tooth Fairy got her best teeth when she put them under her pillow. Because when she did, she always got back a gold coin from another country in the world. She even just liked hiding in Haroom's clothes because he always smelled of mint leaves._

_And don't even started get on Tooth and spearmint gum. It was her anxiety killer._

_So yes, she loved peppermint._

_She loved it so much she bribed Haroom as a little girl for mints – so long as she promised to go to school in States and learn proper English like her mother. __Even though she never understood__ why her Mom passed away at birth._

_"Because she was special, Toothie...just like you." __And Haroom would hug her and touch her short, gold strand of hair, thinking about all the nights he couldn't sleep when he thought she'd cough and cry until her lungs stopped...and the first time a pug had rolled on its back and licked her face, and she squealed and rubbed its ears...and everyone couldn't believe it._

_So Tooth held onto that, even after he was long gone and she had to go to school and honour his wish._

_She even took it a step further when all her handmaidens started showing up for her after she turned twelve._

_"So drink this, girls...Drink it every day, and it'll keep you healthy!"_

_Every day, she and the girls would sit together and drink peppermint tea. It was the only way she could get them to open up. They were always so quiet at first, but like her, they all liked mint and it relaxed them to a point of calm and happiness. Then Tooth found it easier to chat and make jokes with them until they started to like her...until they started to love her, as much as she loved them._

_Because for a little girl so lonely, she had a love that seemed to split itself in the hundreds, **for** the hundreds._

_Then they all grew together, happy, healthy, and strong on that island...because their bodies were eventually naturally embedded with it._

...

"I-It was_ peppermint,_" Tooth finally whispered. Her heart was like a fire in her chest.

She looked up at her golden-haired nanny but beyond his tired, paling expression, he did nothing.

And she knew.

"S-So mom, she...she drank it all the time an...and then growing up on that island, s-surrounded by it every _day. _In the tea, i-in the fields, in my _gum, _I–"

Which meant that when Tooth chewed gum to calm her anxieties, when she shared it with Jack, gave him that biotic, it was doing more than soothing pains...it was healing, protecting them.

Sandy's chains made a rattle.

He started to explain beyond her basic understanding.

It was actually menthol. Menthol, the essential oil _in _the peppermint.

A small dose of menthol was always an ingredient in the products given to the agents helped to stabilize their DNA. Yet there were so many other natural ingredients and essential oils that it would've been hard to decipher for anyone not really seeing it.

"But you did," Tooth mumbled proudly. "You _knew."_

Sandy shook his head. He then lifted his open palm and tapped his thumb to his forehead. Next, he bent out his fingers and made them pedal like a bicycle.

The sign for 'father', and the sign for 'people'.

It was because of who she adored the most, that Tooth had been consuming mint long before he came.

"...A-And Tooth?"

He eyed her curiously. When he looked, she rubbed her eye with her free hand.

A deep frown was on her face as her mouth hung open in shock.

"Wh...What about _'Tooth'? _D-Do you why I was na...be-because I've always wondered but U-Uncle Ty said h-he would...te-tell me one day..."

And to her surprise, Sandy nodded.

Then his fingers started to move, one last time.

...

_Weeks after their wedding and still in surprise about the pregnancy, Haroom and Rashmi were happy and in love as the first day they'd been together._

_One day, they were in the royal sanctuary, chatting about what to do now that a little one was on the way to share in their happiness. They tried guessing whether it'd be a girl or boy, and coming up with names that they liked. Then Haroom mentioned what they'd do if a second one came._

_Rashmi immediately teased him saying he was already feeling frisky and when he grew flustered, she accidentally tripped him. Haroom fell face-first into the grass and chipped a piece of his front tooth off a small rock._

_His wife immediately cried, apologizing that she forgot he was so clumsy but couldn't stop the laugh that escaped her lips._

_Haroom apologized too as he went to pick up the piece of his tooth off the garden floor. Rashmi didn't want to hear it._

_"It's okay," she giggled as she knelt with him in the grass. "It was just a little surprise that made the day more perfect."_

_Just like their relationship...just like their marriage..._

_Just like their child._

_And almost simultaneously, they both looked down at the tooth in Haroom's fingers, imagining a baby's fingernail to be about the exact same size._

_And they knew._

_They just did._

...

Feelings that were beyond comprehensible floated in and around Tooth, drifting through her gas mask stronger than any sand grain or toxic chemical.

Her heart pounded.

"Th...So that's why Baba always told me that story," she whispered. She looked down at the floor with wide eyes, and shaking fingers.

"Dad sh-should've said _something,_" she let out a tiny grasp. "H-He always used to joke that _that_ was where I came from but...H-He wasn't lying. He–"

Then without thinking on it, Tooth looked up, sensing something.

And what she saw was something she thought she'd never see...

...Mr. Sanderson's face was wet.

But while he was crying, he made no hiccup, sob, or choke – not that he ever could. But it was enough for Tooth to understand.

He was apologizing for seeing her treated so wrongly all her life, for her family, for this mess.

And in his silence, which still spoke volumes, she looked down and her vision turned blurry.

But it wasn't out of fear...it was out of love.

A love she'd never felt stronger in such a lonely moment of her life.

When he lifted his hands shakily, she already knew what he was signing before he could finish.

"I _choose_ love, Mr. Sandy," Tooth mumbled then dropped her head against the bars, squeezing Jack's flower in her hand. "I chose it a long time ago."

She shut her eyes just as two tears slipped out...one for each of her parents.

"I-I wish they were_ here..."_

And as it all started to settle, she realised she was no longer mad for the all the lies.

Because how could she?

She was a Hypunjam.

...It was their curse.

* * *

Chapter's soundtrack: "Evacuating London" (The Chronicles of Narnia) – Harry Gregson-Williams

**In the books, Haroom is actually a slave bought by a maharaja but I think he really deserved that 'heart of a prince' title they gave him. Plus, I always saw Haroom as a prince so this is my dedication to him. Toothie's parents ftw. :') And _Raja-Sun_ is my play on his role in the actual book as the 'maharajah' (Raja), and Sun was taken from the actual story of the Chinese Monkey King named 'Sun-Wukong'...the more you know!**


	40. Bad Boys, Big Hearts

**Ok guys, here comes another slice of PG pie! Lawd, you've had too many slices :D Lol thanks as always for your kind feedback guys, now hang on. This is a bromance chapter.**** (: **

* * *

**"I just gotta get you out the cage. I'm a young lover's rage. Gonna need a spark to ignite."**

_and_

**"I am just a man. Not superhuman. I'm not superhuman_. _Someone save me from the hate."**

* * *

_Manhattan ELF Workshop, 5:34 p.m._

In the darkening afternoon, a sleek and silver BMW 4 pulled up just in front of an unmarked steel door from the private air strip. It was big enough to drive a truck through.

At its arrival, a loud buzzer went off over the entrance and when a light turned green, the door sounded like an enormous lock was being unlatched. Moments later, the coupé's doors opened and three men got out. Someone would valet the awesome car to the nearest underground parking zone for them.

They moved swift and silent, briskly kicking up heavy snow from New York's recent blizzard and bending low against the high winds. But the invisible current was a bit unfriendly that night and decided to hurl violent flurries into their eyes.

Of the three, the one leading the group was Jack.

Almost immediately, the steel door of the secret entrance. It was one of many used to gain access to the warm warehouse, so when it was pulled open by an ELF agent, Jack and his two red-clad 'buddies' quickly walked in to avoid the winter blast outside. As their boots made clanking noises on the steel grated floor underneath them, the brunette looked down.

"Jack! Come on, Jack! Dammit man, just take the blan–"

"I don't _need_ it," he snarled and threw a hand back to push the cloth away. "I keep you telling I'm _fine. _I just need North."

That was probably the fortieth time he'd said that since the two ELFs picked him up from New Brunswick, but could he really blame them for their distress? When they found him, he'd been soaking wet and shaking in -30°C temperature – something that would've _killed _a normal person! He should've died from hypothermia, or least gotten a frostbite hideous enough to amputate on, but it was like him trying to explain a rainbow to a blind person. He couldn't explain that he didn't feel any different from the cold, and that his tremors _weren't_ shivers. His shaking was from his _emotions_ and his gene becoming overwhelmed.

When one ELF tried to move close to him again, Jack stretched his stride frustratingly.

They would never get it.

As they moved quickly to the central control area where North said he'd be, Jack looked all around the facility, taking in all the chaos.

The Manhattan ELF base was whole lot different from Moscow. It was grander, more complex, and probably had about seven open floors from what he could count between the different balconies.

He felt his anxiety skyrocket before he tried to level it out again. It didn't help, considering how emotionally screwed he felt during whole the trip down here.

Jack shook his hair, which was still damp from his agonizing plunge into the Atlantic Ocean.

He watched as what looked like _hundreds_ of ELFs zipped above and beneath him to complete their missions. They were all taken off sleeper mode and now had assignments to work around the clock. Many of them looked in distress too, mumbling to themselves or shouting answers to each other.

And as Jack and his two ELFs climbed the steel stairs that lead them up to the seventh platform, he heard North's booming voice too, echoing from the final floor up. Even though he was no longer in his Moscow homebase, he still took command of his Manhattan sector like a born leader.

"_...you checked axis? Is rotation balanced?!...I TRY reaching Sandseron, I try!...'et him know but have not reached...Nyet! We must kee..."_

Then Jack suddenly caught heat of a conversation down below.

_"...er one's is dead,"_ one ELF said urgently. _"...she's gone..."_

His eyes grew wide.

He slowed his climb a fraction to try to hear the rest but they had already dashed away. When he got to the top of the stairs, he spun around and tried looking for the ELFs. But his lips turned down in a deep frown, arctic blue eyes flitting back and forth across North's army of red.

He couldn't find them.

"We found him, sir!" one of his ELFs suddenly spoke in his light, Texan accent. Jack spun back around on his heel and took in the epic sights of the seventh floor.

It was a platform worthy of command control center and as voices filtered up through the grated floors, North, Phil, another hairy officer, and two other high ranking ELFs in deep-red uniforms, all turned. They were standing in front of a set of state-of-the-art computers, going over an operation that was about to place. Fingers were flying on the giant touchscreens and mini tablets the ELFs carried, while folders and coffee cups littered the center executive table.

At the announcement though, North turned his head almost immediately. He was wearing his thick aviator jacket again, the one with the Russian patches over his uniform, and his two swords with the beautiful wreath-designed hilts were in scabbards on his waistbelt. His short beard fell slack with his jaw in awe.

"Jack!"

His electric blue eyes shone bright as they grew to the size of saucers.

Jack looked horrible. He was soaked head to foot and his leather jacket had a rip in it – several rips actually, and his pants were dirty. He also looked like he'd seen a ghost, but from the state of his gaunt expression, he'd probably seen ten...and had to fight them too.

Nicolas quickly pulled himself away from his group and rushed to Jack worriedly, but the other men followed anyway. When the burly Cossack got within three meters of Jack however, he slowed to a halt.

His eyebrows furrowed together when he got a clearer view. His voice was low and in disbelief.

"S...So it is true...Just you?"

Jack's face drained of colour.

He felt his own eyebrows start to furrow too and his heart jolt with irregular beat that he couldn't immediately control.

North sensed it though – they all did.

The ELFs behind Jack stepped around him with grim expressions under their red hoods.

"Yes, sir," the other answered for him. "He was the only one site."

North didn't immediately say anything – no one did.

And as the silence prolonged, Jack felt his insides coil and his fingers still drumming nervously against his pants. He balled his hands into fist to stop them instantly.

Seeing the gesture, North blinked.

What was worse than seeing a man rise for good reason, fall so hard?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

He transformed his worried gaze into a serious one as he looked back at the two rescue ELFs.

"Da, _spasibo (thank you),_" he said curtly. "Good job, men. Y-You can return to your posts."

With a quick nod, they both left Jack's side and dispersed back into the red sea below.

North then gestured to the only door at the end of the platform.

"Jack...Follow me_."_

...

_The Globe Room, 5:47 p.m._

Jack didn't want to think about anything but the time they were losing to track Pitch and his Nightmares, he really didn't. But upon sight and smell of the secondary control room North ushered him into, his overclocked mind momentarily paused.

The room was incredible and majestic, and smelled like steel and synthetic fibres. Its high-ceiling loomed dramatically overhead and when Jack looked forward, he realised there was a circular banister running around the center of the room – with oddly enough, seven pedestals with mini computer screens stationed at each point.

But why all the fuss? Jack tilted his head up in shock to see.

The rail was guarding a giant sphere about twelve feet high. On its surface, he noticed the projection of the holographic image of the globe, every continent and every ocean and sea in the world. Several times, the projection would blow up square windows of a particular country or city and read out logistics certain key things – but that wasn't why Jack was so gobsmacked.

It was mostly because he realised that, for every twinkling light it projected, an ELF was somewhere been tracked on a mission, or a base was running its activity stats.

He frowned at the sight until it added too much weight to his already heavy load and he looked away. North frowned at the reaction.

"Better we talk in here," the chief said gently. "Less noise, easier to get to 'brass of tacks'."

Jack wanted to say that the expression was actually_ brass tax,_ but he didn't dwell on it when he pulled his head up as they walked around the globe.

His eyebrows lifted slightly.

Sitting a little away from where Jack, North and his group was arriving, was Aster.

He was furiously typing away on two sets of keyboards and overlooking four computer screens at once. Despite himself, Jack felt his muscles ease a little at the sight of the green-eyed hacker with blue frosted tips in his dark hair. He'd hoped the Australian pain-in-his-ass had gotten to North safely and it seemed like he did.

But unfortunately for Jack, the older brunette didn't seem to acknowledge anyone at the moment – and he had his reasons.

When he reunited with North, Aster was beyond pissed at North. He'd done alot of thinking in the car driving from Burgess to Manhattan and he realised that when North knew how to help him regain his old memories, it meant he knew about the Purge and Project GUARDIAN in the first place – he'd known more than he let on, and North admitted it too. So in the twenty-four hours since the three of them separated, Aster and the Cossack got into a huge argument with a lot of shouting. Aster tried to forget about him after his huge tantrum by immersing himself back into his programs, trying to find Tooth's sisters again. So the Australian thought they were just a bunch of strangers making white noise in the background. He tried to drown them out.

But as North looked between him and the sodden brunette, his forehead creased.

"Jack," he started slow and soft. "What happened?"

The second he said Jack's name, Aster perked up, and the computer chair he was sitting in, spun around abruptly as he looked up.

_"Who?"_

Jack's blue eyes flicked sideways.

The cool breeze in the Globe Room started to pick up suddenly, rustling the few papers on the tables – but the words flew out of his mouth before he could stop them.

"I d–"

Jack choked.

When he pulled back angrily, the Russian watched as Jack's face split. Then it was like all his emotions were visible for everyone to see on his face.

Jack's eyebrows scrunched together and his frown deepened. "I didn't mean...Ch–I'm _sorry!"_

"But _what _happened?"

As Jack started to explain, he heard boots stomping their way toward him hurriedly. But he couldn't stop the words falling from his lips.

"No, I...I didn't mean for this to happen. I mean I...a-and then we were...next thing I kno–" his breathing kept cutting itself short.

But just as Jack finished bulldozing through his confession, another set of eyes appeared.

They were acid green.

Jack's blood ran cold.

* * *

_"Don't put her into any more dangerous situations or I'll go straight jackrabbit on your ass. **I'm trustin' you not to screw up."**_

* * *

Aster broke through the group to stand in the front. After he looked around frantically for a second, he confirmed it to be true.

_"She's not here..."_ he murmured to himself. Jack looked up at him.

"I–"

"You _lost _her?" Aster bit out._ "And_ her handmaiden?!"

"No, I was fighting, alright?! I was moving and she was suddenly _there! _And I couldn't, I...I–"

"Chief!" an ELF threw open the door to the Globe Room and shouted at North. As he walked in the "It's been confirmed now, the last two clones are missing! Repeat: Missing!"

"What?!"

Everyone's heart stopped.

"And they keep mentioning the princess, the last one! Di...Did she get kidnapped too?! Because o-our operation! What's going to–"

When North whipped his eyes at Jack, the shorter man's face was splashed with terror and self-realization.

"_Oh no..."_ North murmured. "Jack, the mission–"

"No, I...I" Jack started. "I didn't mean it! There were everywhere and we–"

"But you have gene! Why did you not plan tactical escape?! Is what we always resort to!"

quote

Jack looked between the two of them and North's three other trusted allies.

"I-I wasn't thinking!" he finally spat.

North pulled back slightly with a slightly horrified look.

"Wasn't _thinking?"_

Jack ran both hands through his hair.

"You know I never had full use of my gene until today and then when it all came back, I...I-I just got overconfident. I thought I could _beat _them all!"

"Jack!"

"–then she was there...and then I was so _stupid!_ I lost her–I knocked her _right _into a Nightmare and they...they–"

Suddenly, a head lifted.

"What did I _say?"_ Aster blurted out.

Jack whipped his head at the older man, his face disheartened. "Wh–"

"WHAT DID I _SAY_, JACK?!"

And he was on Jack in a flash.

He gripped the short brunette by his collar, making Jack's hair stand on end.

"We should _NEVER_ HAVE TRUSTED YOU!"

Then he shoved Jack back so hard, Jack almost fell down. When he threw a step behind him to catch himself, Jack looked up with wide, blue eyes. His pupils shrunk and his mouth was moving slowly, but the Australian was unforgiving.

"You were supposed to _protect her!_ Isn't that what you promised us? What y'promised _me?!"_

No one said a word. Aster's chest was so full of pent up stress and emotions that they knew they couldn't defuse his temper.

"I should've _never _left her with you. NEVER. _NOW_ LOOK!"

Jack's breathing grew shallow.

"SHE'S..._she's_...YOU PRACTICALLY GAVE HER T–...Y-You..."

Aster stopped when he realised just how loud he'd been shouting.

His head was pounding and his throat was raw. But as he listened to his voice still echoing off the high concrete ceiling, he paused – he got a real look at Jack since the first moment he'd arrived.

Everyone knew Aster's fist was ready to wind up for a punch, even _he _knew it! But when he looked at Jack, he realised...

Jack was wet, Jack was bruised and torn up...

...but he also wasn't fighting back, not like the Aussie had expected.

Aster tried to glare, grit his teeth, he even _tried_ to channel his shame and anger so he could. But...But it wasn't working.

"Jack, ya _bloody_..." But he faded out anyway.

Because even though Jack _looked _bad, Jack felt a hundred times worse than he looked, than he made it seem. His eyes were glassy, his jaw was slack, and his expression was lost – and in its depths, was more pain and guilt than he thought was necessary for one mistake...for someone who only Tooth was only his 'partner'.

And Aster knew why.

* * *

_"'Ey! Leave 'er alone!" Aster butt in._

_But Jack wasn't looking at him. He was narrowing his eyes gently at Tooth._

"...What did he do?"_ he breathed coldly._

_Aster's ears perked up threateningly._

_"Ey?"_

_Jack immediately glared at him._

_"What did you _do_ to her?!"_

_And before either could react, Jack rushed forward. He shot his fingers out and grabbed Aster by the collar of his shirt again._

...

_The second the edge of his hood passed over the threshold, the doors shut swiftly – and he crashed right into Toothiana._

_"Oof!"_

_Aster eyed them worriedly as they both panted and coughed out._

_"J-Jack!" She instantly turned and clutched his arms, puffing warm air into his face. _

_"Y-You okay?" she gulped._

_"Yeah," he grunted and gripped her back. "Are _you?"

_..._

_Jack looked down at her and Tooth's jewel-toned eyes took in his face – the fire behind her lit up his smooth, clammy features. Jack frowned as she stood against him with her dark skin shadowed and irises glistening. He then turned her so the two of them could see the fire. _

_They said nothing and imagined the company, Project GUARDIAN, and everything miles beneath their feet disappear forever._

* * *

Aster's lifted his hands, slowly and apologetic.

"S...Jack, I didn't..." the tech analyst mumbled and took a step back himself. His mouth was flabbergasting. "Y'know I get heated easy...'specially when ...when things go wrong, but I–"

"_You think I don't know that?"_

Aster stopped.

He looked up (along with everyone else) when Jack's voice, so deep and so low, started speaking.

"You think I don't know that I _screwed up?" _the brunette spat painfully. "I KNOW I did!"

Jack looked all around them to avoid their gazes as he mentally started to butcher himself. In his silence, North and Aster saw Jack's pain increase tenfold.

"Pitch probably _does_ have her now, not to mention all her handmaidens! He's tipped balance...and all because I-I _lost_ her, because I..."

He looked like everything was weighing down (like he felt suddenly exhausted) even though they knew a wild card like him had more than enough stamina to keep going – but it was the emotional pain. Even Jack knew he had all his energy still, but he almost felt like he couldn't...didn't_ want _to use it. He looked and felt more like all he wanted to do was lie down forever and shut his eyes until his heart stopped beating so wildly...until it stopped aching.

Jack ran a hand through his hair stressfully and dropped it like a limp fish. His face was down but his eyes were still searching – searching like Tooth was still there if he just looked hard enough.

Aster's thick eyebrows scrunched together too.

"Sorry, mate," he murmured and Jack responded with a weak turn of his head.

"I know..." he said numbly. "And sorry I...I made fun of your ears and your teeth with...with for all the bunny jokes...and the...kangaroo one."

"It's the accent, s'okay...but buck up now, oi?"

Jack's eyes shut gently.

"But if it wasn't for me, she would've _never_..."

As Jack tightened his hands into fists again, North felt the shift in Jack's tone from grief to detachment.

"But Jack," the Slav interjected. "Toothiana–"

"She'd still _be _here if I wasn't trying to play hero. I knew better than that, this isn't a game!" and he gritted his teeth. "But for a moment, I thought...I thought it was. _Why did I even_...I can't _believe_ I almost considered that I–"

"What are you _saying?_" North tried to stop him gently – even Aster's mouth fell slightly open.

"Are you outta your mind, y-gumbie?"

"I'm _sorry,_ okay? I don't know how many more times I can say that...But I'll keep her away from me from now on. I-I promise."

The Russian eyebrows knitted on his face as he looked at the brunette. He took a few steps forward.

"But Jack," he said softly. "...she's your match."

Jack stopped.

When he tilted his head up at North, eyes slightly wide, but the man saw it anyway. It was obvious how much Tooth had left her mark on him – before anyone could do or say anything though, Jack clenched his jaw tightly and he looked away. He couldn't say how much he was deeply affected by Tooth's disappearance without giving his entire heart away. He couldn't say how much he ached hearing the sound of her voice, or how much he yearned for her touch. He even longed for the smell of her, of peppermint and summer flowers, and the softness of her thick hair, and the burning memory of her lips even though they hadn't talk about it because they both still felt awkward.

He even missed the awkward because with Tooth, _everything_ was awkward...and it was perfect. But nobody knew that but him.

North closed the gap between them when he saw Jack's face fall into deeper disparity. He put on his hand on the shorter man's shoulder.

"We _will_ get her back."

Jack didn't bother to look back up and instead turned out of the touch to walk away.

"But how, chief?" one of the ELFs finally butt in, trying to join the conversation. "_How? _We've tried for months, _you've _tried for _years _figuring out where Pitch has been hiding all this time! Without the princess how can he attempt the biological trace like we wanted?"

North looked back at his grim-looking group with a forlorn expression, but Aster stepped up to support him. The green-eyed man motioned his hands back to where his precious computers were.

"I can keep trying to track the Nightmare movements," he offered. "I've got about fifty algorithms running eight different servers on the bases your ELFs managed to find. If I can just keep chasing those numbers one of 'em's bound to–"

One of Phil's officers gave a disgruntled sigh.

"Warba blarghgha!" Translation: WE DON'T HAVE TIME.

Aster whirled on him, not at all intimdated by the thick fur coats and even thicker moustaches.

"Well, what other choice do we have, mate?!" he snapped. "Pitch has all eight clones, _plus _the princess, which means Operation: Nightmare is about to go down any hour from now!"

Jack visibly flinched – only North noticed with his sharp eyes.

As he continued to stare, Aster balled his fingerless glove into a fist. He glared at the computers.

"We can still turn this around!"

North continued to watch the Jack but Jack didn't seem to sense he was there – he didn't seem to sense that anyone was there anymore.

"Even if we don't have the resources," Aster continued, "w-we can make our own!"

After a pregnant pause, the Slav frowned to the floor.

"Nyet."

Aster stopped in his weak pep talk and turned back around. So did the rest of the group.

"_No?_ Whadya mean 'no'?" the hacker said nervous and wary all at once.

The ELF chief shut his eyes.

"Bunny...You do not to make resources because we do. We do have one last option available."

"W-We do? Well, what is it?!"

And when he lifted his head and finished his words, Jack was looking up at him too.

North exhaled.

"We have...**Naughty Or Nice**."

A long pause followed.

North looked at Jack then turned back to the group behind him. Jack narrowed his eyes.

"Naughty or _Nice? _You want to find Pitch with what? Your _tattoos?"_

But North was already crossing his arms as he braced himself for his own explanation. He started to visibly pale as everyone stared at the two words inked on his forearms.

Then he explained.

"Is operation I come up with Sandy. I am not proud of it. I never will be, but...but I use my gene to forcibly _control_ ELFs in past."

Everyone's eyebrows shot up.

"W-What?!" one ELF agent gasped.

"GRUAGH BREUGHA?" Phil garbled, but North suddenly lifted a finger to quickly defend himself.

"But not for own pleasure, nyet!" he barked. "I twist what they _want_ so they choose to join terrorist groups..instead of joining me. They are my moles, and I can switch them back when we need their help from inside."

"But that's..." the second high-ranking ELF scowled slightly. "That's brainwash, North."

North nodded shamefully.

Aster shook his head with a deep glower. His earlier fight with the man came up like bile in his throat.

_"What else have you been keepin' us in the dark about?"_ he grumbled bitterly and took a step back as North rubbed a hand over his face stressfully.

He could feel the displeasure and betrayal washing off his comrades and it was what he always feared. He hoped he wouldn't lose anyone after this as he tried to explain succinctly, but he had to keep going, for all their sakes.

"I had not switched any back but only in emergencies like this. I risk their lives as well as all this," he gestured to the warehouse and all his life's work, "if they are found out."

When he looked at Jack for confirmation, he wasn't surprised to see the disturbed look washing across the brunette's pale features. Jack eventually glared at him.

"How could you do that to your own men?" he said in a low tone, bristling as the thought of trust came bubbling up to the surface. North understood the lack of sympathy – how could it not sound as bad as he made it sound? Jack had every right to be scornful, not to mention the men behind all standing behind him. How could _they _know if they were really working for him of their free will? What if he worked his gene on them to make them _think_ they wanted to be spies?

"How are you even _capable _of doing something like that?" Jack hissed.

North frowned grimly.

"Just as you are capable of creating hurricane that shatters glass ten miles away," he simply said. "Just as Bunny is capable of creating sinkhole big enough to swallow entire building. Because this is the height of _my_ gene. At strongest, I can twist your desires and make you want it...forever and ever."

He then abruptly turned and faced Aster and the other boys too. Jack's jaw clenched down again.

"But that not what _I_ wanted. Too much pain caused by one gene, too much consequence. You know this, gentleman," and he looked at both Jack and Aster, "the gene is blessing, da. But is also curse."

And they didn't have to be told twice – not when Aster remembered (despite having enough power to level a city) how hard it was to even hold an egg without it cracking under his fingertips; and not when Jack (who had more than enough command over the wind to create tornado if he wanted) could blow anything...or _anyone_ away with the sweep of an unfocused hand or violent emotion.

Aster rubbed the back of his neck.

"So...your men," he started unsteadily as he took a step forward again, biting down on his earlier awkwardness with his large teeth. "Do they know what you did?"

"Benefit of gene," North nodded his head, "_Da_."

Jack and the men's eyes grew wide.

As the tension in the group visibly dissipated, North continued. "Is a Desire gene, remember? It was _their _choice to go. I merely amplify the want into action."

"But th-they wanted to go?" Jack asked. "To join terrorist organizations? _Willingly?_"

"Da, Jack," North answered, glad to know Jack wasn't completely lost from the conversation. "They knew cost, but they wanted to change from good to bad. For the sake of us, for this agency, in case we ever needed help from the inside."

"W-Well, why didn't you say anythin', before!?" Aster nearly shouted as his blood pressure started to rise. "W-We could've been tracking your men inside Pitch's lair _since bloody day one_ had you–"

"Because Pitch is too smart!" North roared back. "You think I _like _wait, Bunny?! I wanted to find Pitch just as a badly but we were not prepared. His men always watch each other, he would've known...but...but not tonight! Tonight, he will be distracted, all the Nightmares will be distracted on the Operation, so we must act quickly. This is only chance of exposing my ELF and finding where he is."

When Phil garbled a question, North nodded his head instantly.

"Yes, old friend, he should be in his main hideout. Is what he desired when he told me his plan: to one day work for Pitch in his headquarters. I least I hope he is...I cannot where any N.O.N. ELF goes after they leave or if they ever make it until they raise signal."

He then turned to his two ranking ELFs for a serious gaze.

"Would you not say that is worth the sacrifice?"

After a moment, the two of them pulled up to their full height, and they nodded.

"It is," one answered. And it's why our men are the best."

So without a second thought, Aster turned and rushed back to the computers.

A sudden fire exploded in his heart.

"Bunny."

The green-eyed hacker paused mid-step and looked over his shoulder. North looked at him with a sad, worn out look.

"Izvinite."

But Aster walked back to the burly older man in his late fifties. He gave the Russian a light punch in the arm.

"Naw, mate, no more sorry's," he cast his eyes over the Jack for a brief second. "From _any_ of you. This was always bigger than all of us."

He needed to kill some RAM in order to start a new tracking algorithm for when North switched his ELF off Nightmare-mode. They needed to be ready to get some kind of irregular signal sent out to them – and it would be so covert, so as to not alert the Nightmares, that the rest of the group moved about their stations too. Phil and his officers called ahead to other ELF workshops across Europe to look out for a beacon, and the two senior ELFs started planning an assembly of all the other agents.

As they moved away, Jack still found his feet planted to one spot. North looked at him, still feeling the residue of mistrust and befuddlement that swam around the pale man – he wasn't sure though if it was _entirely _for him.

When he walked back close to the ex-GUARDIAN, Jack bent his head down and glared softly at the floor.

"What good _ever_ comes from corrupting others?"

A part of him pictured Tooth holding her gun as he heard Damon's old voice in his head as he said it – and little bit of Aster's too.

He looked up, his bitter frown still on his face.

"And how do you keep from falling apart when you know you're capable of something so destructive?"

North's face softened and he bent slightly to level with Jack's height. Instantly, Jack was reminded of a kind older, father figure and he looked away to avoid feeling what he was feeling. But North didn't back down and confidently rested his large hand on Jack's shoulder.

Without even realising it, Jack shifted his gaze back up to the Russian chief. He found two blue, expressive eyes looking back at him firmly.

"Jack...I apologize for _what_ I did, but not for _why _I did it. As did what my ELFs say."

His thick accent blew what smelled like cinnamon into Jack's nostrils – and the voice was so assured, so righteous.

North continued.

"Because having faith and believing in the causes we fight for, is one of the strongest virtues we as humans have. And if we sacrifice ourselves to the darkest of evils for the protection and love of others, then we are not monsters..."

Jack looked up suddenly – and North fixed him with a firm look.

"...but true guardians in disguise."

And the brunette's eyes widened worriedly.

It was like North just went inside his head and pulled out every image, every emotion, every memory Jack had since losing himself, since losing Emma, since losing Tooth, and laid it back out in front of his eyes for him to see.

He had no words after.

The Russian GUARDIAN had such wisdom...and it made his entire body and all his muscles, loosen with ease.

And when North felt Jack's shoulder slacken under his touch, he nodded his head firmly. He lifted a finger.

"_Remember our oath,"_ he whispered gently.

Jack didn't say or do anything – but his face was a canvas of emotion and it was enough for the Russian.

North then turned to Aster and his team.

"Bunny!" he called, much to the hacker's chagrin. "Are we ready?"

No response was given as Aster finished typing the last of his programs. Then with one last press ENTER, he slid his chair away from the computer and cracked his knuckles.

"Ready when you are, mate!"

North then exhaled through his lips and sauntered over. As he did, the enormous room fell silent in dark curiosity. No one had known the GUARDIAN was capable of such a dark ability, but they were stretched for time and needed know just where Pitch was hiding. As North walked over to the giant globe lit with all the ELF workshops and activity across the continents, Jack and the others stood in anticipation. The man then stopped just short a few feet of the sphere to look at it.

For a moment, all he did was stare, his big eyes drinking in every piece of information before him. Nearly all the tiny lights were either green or golden – it meant that many of the ELF agents were off sleeper mode and were doing their timely assignments just as he needed. The ones in red signified an alert or crisis (some blinked steadily for help, while others were solid as a precaution), but Aster and his other teams of TI ELFs were no doubt looking after them anyway.

North shut his eyes suddenly.

"Naughty to Nice Operation," he said gruffly. "I will start."

They all waited.

At first, North was so still, like a tree or a mountain unyielding to everything and everyone around him. Even the muscles in his face started to relax and it almost looked like he went to asleep.

Then...

_SIIING!_

Everyone covered their ears – because even with earplugs, the high-pitched ringing still penetrated through their ear canals.

The resonance was so distinct, so rich, it was like a steel tong hitting a table and it seemed to go on forever until North lifted a hand... and clenched his jaw. Then he heard it.

North immediately found himself hearing the whispers and wishes of all the people he'd ever connected with – agents, GUARDIANs before him, friends, and enemies still alive. Like a blind person lost in the Grand Central Station, North's attention fell into a dizzying state as he listened and passed every desire he'd ever heard or asked for of someone.

_**What do you wish for?**_

_...report of success...shipment of tungsten...my family..._

_...I want Tara back...to uncover C-4...to work undercover...my old staff..._

It would've been hard for anyone to step into thousands of minds and memories like that. The weight of everyone else's emotional stress and mental turmoil could have made his head go insane, it _should _have – but North wasn't anyone.

He clutched one hilt of his scimitar for support. The others peeked through his eyes when they realised the high-pitched whining was slowly dying away. As they lifted their heads again, they watched the Russian work.

North's bushy eyebrows scrunched together. He pursed his lips slightly in thought. The more wishes he heard people asking him for, the more strained his gene became. It wore him down quickly and he was almost afraid he wouldn't be able to filter through the desires of his ELFs fast enough to find the ones who wanted to leave and join the dark side. There were thousands of ELFs he'd met and recruited in his career, and even thousands more wishes they had.

Then–

_...Pitch..._

North stopped.

There were a lot of wishes that involved Pitch – of course, all of them involved wanting him _dead_, but the point _was_...maybe North didn't have to search too long to find the one ELF that wished differently of Pitch.

_...Pitch...Pitch dead...Pitch's warehouse..._

_...Pitch and his neurotoxins...Pitch invention...Pitch and his Nightmare's six feet under..._

And suddenly, like a dying whisper amongst the shouting...a man's familiar dark and husky voice floated into his ears.

_...join Pitch...to join Pitch..._

And North's eyes flew open as he recognised the wish, remembering the selfless act that was committed that day.

* * *

_...I want to leave you, North. I want to join Pitch, become one of his best...I want to join Pitch..._

_**Da, go then. Let this be on the only thing you ever wanted, unless I say so.**_

_It is...until you say so. Pitch needs me. Not you._

* * *

Grasping onto that desire stronger than any of the others or anything else around him, North tightened his hand on his sword's hilt and grit his teeth.

He sent a sharp _ssiiiinng! _into his own head to strength their desire bond, still listening to the man's voice, still alive and still rotten as it was brave.

* * *

_...I want to join Pitch..._

___...I want to join Pitch..._

_**Nyet. Not anymore.**__  
_"Nyet. Not anymore..."

* * *

"Now," North continued. _"W__e need you."_

He then closed his fingers into a fist and with a powerful swing, he threw his fell whole arm down.

His muscles bucked slightly in his biceps and nothing but a sharp _fwoop _from his jacket was heard to the men around him, but in his head...North heard something like glass shattering.

_CRASH!_

It was like a building have been collapsed in his mind and the link between him and the ELF severed indefinitely. A foreboding feeling came over him afterwards, like sensing someone you were close to died without you knowing it. He stood there stricken and pale for a long while.

No one knew what to make of his actions and his behaviour.

But Jack tried to.

"Nic," he started slowly as he took several steps toward the Russian. "Come on, talk to us."

North didn't say anything at first. He was deeply petrified by this act every time he performed on it on an ELF – the switch to make their desire to leave him was always like a burn at his gene's core. However, the switch back to return was like having a thousand knives drive themselves into his belly. It was a very painful experience playing puppeteer like he was – and he hated it, especially how it made him nauseous.

Phil even thought so as he suddenly appeared on North's right with a cloth.

_"Spasibo _old friend," North murmured breathily as he took the small sheet and wiped a light sheen of sweat on his wrinkled forehead. When the man turned, all pair of eyes (both mutated and non-mutated) stared at him anxiously.

North exhaled.

"I found him."

Then a voice drifted into North's ear.

_...I want my ELF uniform back._

And all at once, North couldn't help laughing with a booming gasp of relief.

"Haha! Now _that's _what I want to hear!" he exclaimed as he walked forward a little

"What? Hear what?" Jack asked.

North turned to face him (and everyone) anyway. He pointed at the globe and swept a hand out to all the computers.

"Bunny, be ready," he stated. "Tell other TIs too! Be on lookout for any irregularity in ELF patterns! If all is well, he _will _send signal." He then gestured to Phil and the other yeti-lookalikes.

"Boys, ship shape. As soon as impossible!"

They scratched their heads in confusion, still wondering what North was getting so cocksure about but a beat later, they started grunting in low tones again to go over what weapons, vehicles, and air-traffic controls they had at the ready.

"And Dingle!"

One of the two ranking ELFs lifted his head from where they were quietly planning. The taller one pulled up to his full height when North fixed him with his electric blue eyes. They were the only two ELFs that knew about his gene outside his inner circle – they'd worked loyally under the ELF who died in Belarus, so he trusted them with his secret.

"Make preparations! We are going to have company."

"Company?" Aster snapped his head at North for a millisecond before he glued his eyes to the screens again. "Hold on, hold on, I thought you said you weren't sure whether your ELF could get out alive or not!"

"Well, ah not exactly..."

"Not exactly? Can you believe this guy?" the Aussy grumbled, shooting Jack a look – to which the brunette shrugged.

"I do," he defended before he shot North a miffed look. "Just wish that the effect was instantaneous, that's all."

When North looked down at him, he tried to reassure Jack with a firm nod. "He will call, Jack. Just keep believing. In _all_ of this."

The Cossack then lifted his gaze away from the Jack to look at Aster at the computer. Sensing it, Aster turned around in his chair. The two had a weird stareoff until Aster's hard expression softened slightly. He then spun back around to face the computer – but not before he lifted his left hand and shot North a small thumbs up.

"Ho ho ho."

And he heard North laugh.

Even though the tech analyst was still pissed about the whole truth thing, he wasn't _just _computer savvy; Aster did have people smarts. He knew there were more important things above his own feelings (like finding Toothiana, stopping Pitch, and saving his friendship with the Russian) that had to be prioritised.

North gave a small smile.

And not a second later, something caught one of Phil's officer's attention.

"Gawfherba!"

As he pointed up at the globe of ELF lights, one light had suddenly started to flicker red at an alarming rate.

It was in Europe...in the country always mistaken for a boot.

...

_Globe Room, Platform 7, 7:53 p.m._

With raging hearts and minds working overtime, North, Aster, and Jack planned a scout mission to commence. And with North's resources, Aster's tactics, and Jack's experience with stealth and Nightmares, the three came up with a plan worthy of the company they once worked for. The hardcore approach incorporated all their skills and knowledge of Italy towards busting out Tooth and hopefully, stopping Pitch.

"Too bad we haven't got all your ELFs, mate," Aster grumbled when they were well past logistics and now just fine-tuning the mission for errors. North would supervise all the ELF movements, Aster would pilot the devices and communications, and Jack would infiltrate with a support team at their signal.

But something suddenly struck the tech analyst as he stopped pacing in his large boots and turned to the Russian.

"What the hell are your ELFs goin' off on missions for anyway?" he finally asked.

Jack turned his head, perplexed too. He'd never bothered to ask North what his _all_ agents were doing off sleeper mode anyway; he'd just assumed that they were all on different missions.

The Chief stroked his white beard though.

"They were ready to stop Pitch," he admitted. "An mass attack on his multiple known bases."

Jack and Aster's eyebrows shot up.

"When were you gonna tell us that?" the shorter brunette remarked and North fixed them with a look.

"Just now before Bunny say," he then turned back to the giant globe behind where they were sitting at their planning table – well, it was more just _North _sitting since Aster decided just to lean against it and Jack opted to perch himself with one leg folded on the counter near the wall.

"My men and I have been waiting for this chance," he continued. "Everything has been riding up to this year because we know _we _have finally beaten out his company. His industry makes warfare, but mine gentleman, has been tracking and countering his inventions for years. ELFs believe we can take him down, and I have faith in my men, like I have faith in my belly...I _feel _it."

Jack and Aster didn't say anything for a moment. Just seeing that wonder in North's eyes as he looked at the lights dotting the globe, and feeling that energy in the air, made their respect for him settle into them like cement – resolute and supporting.

"Well, GUARDIAN or not, I feel _something _too_,_" Aster said offhandedly while his eyes held that ever-present shine of hope in them. He pushed himself away from the table and flexed his stiff fingers from the constant typing. "But it ain't my belly."

"Ah, but you_ are_ GUARDIAN, Bunny," North interjected – before he looked over at Jack too. "And so are _you, _if you are ready now to accept."

Jack paused in his walk off the counter and back to table. He had his hands shoved into his leather jacket, still wet and barely comfortable.

He looked at the ex-SANTA...and for once, Jack didn't argue.

Aster saw it as a sign and North pushed himself up from his chair. Phil and the others in the room stopped talking to look on in silence as the chief walked up to the brunette.

When North was standing right in front of Jack and looking down at him, he spoke again.

"We rest and prepare, but at first clearance, we head out to get girls and stop Pitch. But will you join us?"

Jack didn't miss a beat. He looked up with a determined expression – he'd take a light power nap but it'd be hard now that all energy seemed to surge through him.

"You know I will."

North put his large hand on the thin man's shoulder again. He nodded with encouragement.

"Princess, friend, or not, you know this," he mumbled gently. "She is still a person, they are still people, and they are all that we have...all that we are...and all that we will _ever_ be."

Jack nodded back, his fist tightening gently in his pocket.

"And I'll _never_ stop protecting them."

"So see? You _are _a GUARDIAN. Still in disguise, but I see you."

Something like warm molasses suddenly churned inside Jack. That trail of warmth Tooth left behind in him, the same one that almost vanished again after the Nightmares appeared, started to show itself again at North's words.

And for the first time since he arrived, the corners of Jack's mouth lifted tiredly and he gave a small smile.

"I see you too, Nic."

North returned it boastfully, while Aster crossed his arms again and nodded his head. He smiled slightly too.

"Good on ya," he said gentle enough so that only Jack could hear him. "Now let's do 'em proud and get ready light a fire under this Boogeyman's ass."

North threw Aster a knowing smile.

"Not dressed like this we won't."

...

_Male ELFs' Locker room, 10:04 p.m._

"_This is it, men!"_

_CLINCH! _The sound of a new bullet cartridge being shoved into an assault rifle bounced off the tiles of the empty room. North's voice echoed through the clear intercom across the entire warehouse – and most likely all the others across the world.

"_The night we have preparing for months."_

A dark bodysuit, reminiscent of the powerful combat and symbolism that was once the GUARDIANs' uniform, was laying on a nearby bench ready to adorn his lithe body. Padding, flexible black fabric, and a showcase of design that set the wearer apart from any regular known spy was visible from a mile away – even from where he leaned over the sink for the last time.

"_We deploy in 48 minutes!"_

Jack splashed warm water onto his face one more time before he shut the tap.

"_48 minutes!"_

He lifted his head, gazing at the now empty bottle of hair dye remover on the pedestal. And when he stared back into the mirror, he exhaled deeply.

Wow.

There staring back at him was the real Jack, the one he'd been hiding for so long under the dark cover of his muddled identity.

Bright, arctic blue eyes were clear and focused ready for the fight.

Pale, white skin was itching with energy underneath.

And tousled bright, snowy white hair was dripping with warm water, waiting to shock and leave a mark on the Nightmares he'd end tonight. White hair...it might even have shined silver in some harsh lights thanks to the mutation from his Center gene. But it made him who he was, and he didn't want to hide it anymore.

Jack clenched his jaw as the water droplets dripped off his bangs.

No more hiding, no more keeping to the dark. He was ready to jump out and take back everything that was his. And as he picked up his towel and rubbed his hair dry and clean of anymore dye, he didn't feel anymore conviction than he felt in that one moment. This was it.

Jack then looked sideways onto his weapons belt.

It was laying on an adjacent counter with his leather jacket. This was the last time he'd use it, since North said a whole new slew of gear would be waiting for him down in Platform 2. But as he reached over for one of its long holders, he wasn't thinking about the weapons. Instead, when Jack he opened it...he pulled out a long, orange feather.

_You're my hero, Jack..._

The same orange feather that Tooth had in her hair the first time they met.

As he held it, he frowned deeply. It got damaged from the water when he fell into the ocean and the soft fringe was clumped and bristly. A part of it was also bent, reminding him of a broken wing and Jack gritted his teeth.

He gently closed his fist around it.

_"Hang in there, T,"_ he murmured. _"You're not disappearing on me again."_

He'd make sure of it.

* * *

Chapter's soundtracks: "My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light 'Em Up)" – Fall Out Boy **(****suggested ****by rotgfanartblog and RandomNerdyGirl!) and I also _really_ like** "Hero" (Legion of Doom Remix) – Skillet **It's actually my official track for Jack. Haha but since I couldn't decide, here's two epic songs with two ways of looking at badassery. Enjoy and big thanks guys!**

**Don't know what else to say except...**_**hell**_** yeah and finally. Jack's back. ;)**


End file.
